Here is my homily for this Sunday.<\/p>\n
Peace,<\/p>\n
Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n
4th Sunday in Lent, Year B<\/a> The Book of Chronicles speaks of the infidelities, the abominations of the Israelites, and how they are polluting\u00a0the Lord\u2019s Temple.\u00a0 These verses can be discouraging but it is the reality of how the Israelites have been acting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today is the Fourth Sunday of Lent.\u00a0 It is Laetare Sunday<\/em>.\u00a0 Laetare means to rejoice.\u00a0 But these few verses from Chronicles don’t lead us to rejoice.\u00a0 They can be pretty discouraging but if we read further we see a reason to rejoice.<\/p>\n What was God\u2019s reaction when the Israelites failed to follow the Lord\u2019s way?\u00a0<\/p>\n In the days of Noah God had caused the Great Flood to destroy the sin in the world.\u00a0 Since his promise to Noah, God has not destroyed the people for their sins.\u00a0 What is God\u2019s reaction in today\u2019s reading?\u00a0 When the people fail to follow him, he sends messengers (prophets) to speak God\u2019s word, showing mercy, to help them see the error of their ways and to encourage them to change their ways.<\/p>\n When they still don\u2019t change, he allows the Babylonians to defeat them but they are not destroyed.<\/p>\n Giving all this, what reason would there be to rejoice?\u00a0 We rejoice because, as Paul says, God is rich in mercy because of the great love he had for us.<\/p>\n God never gives us on us.\u00a0 We must always try to live as Jesus teaches us but we when we make mistakes, when we screw up and sin, we can rejoice<\/em> that we have a God who is merciful and forgives us.<\/p>\n God\u2019s mercy is a great gift to us!<\/p>\n Jesus speaks of God’s love.\u00a0\u00a0We see people holding posters at events that read John 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n All we have to do is believe<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n Note, I do not say that we just have to say \u201cI believe.\u201d\u00a0 I said all we have to do<\/em>\u00a0is believe.\u00a0\u00a0The word ‘believe’ is a verb.\u00a0 So, to believe requires an action.<\/p>\n In a few moments, we will say our Creed where we say, I believe in God the Father, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come.<\/p>\n You can find much more about what we believe in the Bible and the teachings of the Church.<\/p>\n But in this season of Lent we can ask ourselves what does it mean to say we believe in light of our sins?\u00a0 How do we know that our sins are truly forgiven?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go back to the beginning of today\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 Jesus makes reference to how Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert.\u00a0 If you go back and look at that whole story, the people had been sinning.\u00a0 To punish them, God sent poisonous serpents to bite them but then when Moses (as God commanded) took one of those serpents, mounted it on a pole, and lifted it up for all to see, when they looked upon it they were healed (see Numbers 21:4-9<\/a>).<\/p>\n Jesus says the Son of Man must be lifted must be lifted up in the same way so that all who believe in him might have eternal life.<\/p>\n Jesus is lifted up twice.\u00a0 First, on the Cross, which by itself could look like a defeat, but then he is lifted up a second time in the Resurrection so that we might know the power of the Cross.<\/p>\n So, when we look upon the Cross, we see it as the instrument of our salvation but we are not saved by a piece of wood.\u00a0 No earthly thing can save us.\u00a0 It is Jesus himself hanging on the Cross because of his great love for us that we are saved.<\/p>\n That is why\u00a0as\u00a0Catholics we don’t just have Crosses in our churches, we don’t just have images of Jesus.\u00a0 We have Crucifixes to remind us of what Jesus did for us.\u00a0 We don’t despair looking at the Crucifix.\u00a0 We rejoice because of the love that Jesus showed for us hanging on the Cross<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It is that love in which we believe.\u00a0 It is in that love we rejoice today on Laetare Sunday.<\/p>\n But it is not enough just to see Jesus crucified.\u00a0 We must be transformed by it.\u00a0 We must want to become more like Jesus.\u00a0 We must want to move from the darkness to light.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Because of the love that Jesus has shown for us we can trust in him and all that he teaches us.\u00a0 We must strive to live according to what Jesus teaches.<\/p>\n Change doesn\u2019t come easy.\u00a0 We struggle.\u00a0 We fail, we repent and God keeps forgiving us.\u00a0 In God\u2019s mercy, we rejoice<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is my homily for this Sunday. Peace, Fr. Jeff 4th Sunday in Lent, Year B 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21 March 18, 2012 The Book of Chronicles speaks of the infidelities, the abominations of the Israelites, and how they are polluting\u00a0the Lord\u2019s Temple.\u00a0 These verses can be discouraging but it is …<\/p>\n
\n2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
\nEphesians 2:4-10
\nJohn 3:14-21
\nMarch 18, 2012<\/p>\n