{"id":1564,"date":"2015-03-15T12:03:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T16:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2015-03-15T12:03:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T16:03:50","slug":"4th-sunday-in-lent-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-in-lent-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday in Lent, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday in Let, Year B<\/a>
\n2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
\nEphesians 2:4-10
\nJohn 3:14-21
\nMarch 15, 2015<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Books of Chronicles help tell the story of God\u2019s relationship with the people.\u00a0 Today\u2019s passage comes from a time when the people of Israel had turned away from God and lived in infidelity<\/em>, committing abominations<\/em> against the Lord\u2019s ways and polluting<\/em> the Temple by their sinful acts.<\/p>\n

The Lord was not pleased.\u00a0 Things had gone too far.\u00a0 God had tried to help the people to be good, early and often<\/em>, by sending them the prophets as His messengers.<\/p>\n

Did they listen to the prophets?\u00a0 At times some did, like the Ninevites who repeated at Jonah\u2019s preaching.\u00a0 Not this time.\u00a0 The people are mocking the prophets and ignoring what they said.<\/p>\n

It seemed<\/em> like there was no remedy.\u00a0 I stress \u201cseemed\u201d because with God there is always hope for God is rich is mercy and love.\u00a0 God always works towards the salvation of His people.<\/p>\n

The reality is that we are human and none of us are perfect.\u00a0 We make bad choices.\u00a0 God knows that.\u00a0 God knows we need to be healed of our sins.<\/p>\n

What does it take for God to heal us?<\/p>\n

In the Book of Numbers we read the story of the people sinning and, as punishment, the Lord sent poisonous saraph serpents who bite the people.\u00a0 When they repented and called out to the Lord for help, God told Moses to mount one of the saraph serpents on a pole and all who looked at the saraph lifted up on the pole in faith would be healed.<\/p>\n

To heal us of our sins, God gives us the perfect remedy.\u00a0 What does God do and why?<\/p>\n

\u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only son.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

When we realize we have done something to hurt another human being, our tendency is try to do something to make it up to them.\u00a0 When we sin, how do we make it up to God?<\/p>\n

We might try to make up for it by doing a good deed.\u00a0 We might also want to change our behavior before<\/em> we ask God for forgiveness.\u00a0 We should try to change our behavior and make amends with good deeds but we shouldn\u2019t do these to \u201cearn God\u2019s forgiveness.\u201d\u00a0 We cannot earn<\/em> God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Receiving God\u2019s forgiveness is not based on mathematics of weighing the sin against our good deeds.\u00a0 God\u2019s forgiveness is made possible for us by Jesus\u2019 giving of his life on the Cross.<\/p>\n

Even with Jesus\u2019 death, we should not look at it as a weighing of the good and bad.\u00a0 What about Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion makes it possible for our sins to be forgiven?\u00a0 It is because Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion is an act of love<\/em> and surrender<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When we sin, we must try to make amends for our actions and we must try to change our behavior but we should not wait to change to ask God for forgiveness.\u00a0 Asking God for forgiveness should be the first thing we do.<\/p>\n

We ask God for His forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.\u00a0 God is rich in mercy and eager to forgive us but we need to come to Him with a humble and contrite heart.<\/p>\n

Confessing our sins is not easy.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like to admit our failures, especially to another human being but it can be a powerful experience.<\/p>\n

As the one hearing the confessions, it can be a humbling experience.\u00a0 Sometimes hearing confessions can be one of the highlights of my week.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that I want to hear bad things about other people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

To see people\u2019s burdens lifted when I give them absolution reveals God\u2019s power at work in me.\u00a0 For the last two years, our diocese has had a day of penance where Confession is offered in all the parishes on a given day.<\/p>\n

When they first announced this I thought that we didn\u2019t need to offer it for seven hours.\u00a0 There won\u2019t be that many people.\u00a0 I wondered what I would do for all that time just sitting in the confessional.\u00a0 I brought books with me to read.<\/p>\n

When the day was over, I was sort of right.\u00a0 Seven hours was not the right amount of time.\u00a0 It took me a little over eight hours to hear all the confessions.\u00a0 I never picked up any of the books I had brought.\u00a0 I only left the confessional once for a bathroom break.\u00a0 It was a powerful experience.<\/p>\n

Last year, it only took me six and a half hours to hear all the confessions.\u00a0 Next week, on Tuesday, March 24th<\/sup> we will again have a Day of Penance and Mercy across our diocese.\u00a0 Do you need to come?<\/p>\n

If you seek the sacrament but can\u2019t make it on the 24th<\/sup> or Saturday afternoon, please call for an appointment.\u00a0 God is rich in mercy so there is plenty of forgiveness to go around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Let, Year B 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21 March 15, 2015   The Books of Chronicles help tell the story of God\u2019s relationship with the people.\u00a0 Today\u2019s passage comes from a time when the people of Israel had turned away from God and lived in infidelity, committing abominations against …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday in Lent, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-pe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1565,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions\/1565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}