A Homily - The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

First Reading – 2 Chronicles 36:14 - 16, 19 - 23 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 136(137):1 - 6 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 2:4 - 10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 3:16

The Gospel According to John 3:14 – 21 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe, God created the universe, and us in it, free; God does not intervene in human affairs and God never consecrated a temple in Jerusalem. This did not happen. The early Hebrews had it right when they carried the law with them wherever they made their camp, and the law, which was their connection to the divine, the law was at the center of their community.

 Know this.

 God did not send prophets and messengers to work among the people, God did not tap Samuel on the shoulder and say: “You there, go do this!” The same is true of Elijah and Elisha, and Isaiah was not a singular person, but a community of people writing over the course of generations,

 God does not select us for this mission, but calls all of us to it. There are women and men who devoted their lives to speaking against corruption, people who held up the law as the standard to which we should return when we have strayed from the principles of justice, mercy and humility that ought to characterize society. People like Jesus who hearkened to the law God had written in his hear, as in the hearts of everyone. God does not send prophets, they emerge in our midst to hold the powerful accountable. It is often the case that we do not recognize them when they are among us…but this is always the role they.

 Jeremiah did his best to speak the truth as he understood it (if Jeremiah did in fact exist), but God did not speak one word through Jeremiah, because God has left the discernment of the divine will to us.

 In freeing the Hebrew people and allowing them to return to Jerusalem, God did not act through Cyrus. Though it may be said that Cyrus acted on behalf of God, insofar as he acted in the interest of true justice…freeing people from bondage has always been viewed as serving the interests of justice.

 Be mindful of the psalmist and forget about Jerusalem.

 Do not fall into the error of coveting this city like the idolatrous covet their idols.

 Do not let your passion for a parcel of land turn you into killers and monsters, or turn you away from the loving God.

 Forget about Jerusalem, and forget about Rome.

 God, the creator of all that is, was and ever will be, God loves the whole of creation and has infused it with the grace of God’s own living spirit.

 This is the truth!

 We are created in grace, loved by God, and God’s grace has made us free.

 Know this!

 Our salvation was never in doubt. We are born in time and space, but God has made us for eternity.

 Have faith; trust God, not so that you can be saved, but trust that you are saved already.

 Consider the Gospel Reading for today.

 Remember this: the salvation of the world was not worked out by lawyers, and it does not take place in the context of a battle between the forces of good and evil.

 God has not called us to choose sides in a cosmic conflict between the creator and the enemy (whoever that might be) .

 The salvation of the world is not a magic act, it is found in healing: The healing of bodies, minds and spirits; the healing of social and political systems, including religious systems; the healing of economic systems, manufacturing and distribution systems.

 Jesus did not have to be lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent, so that the preconditions for belief in him could be established, so that upon expressing belief in Jesus, or acquiescing to the Church’s teaching regarding Jesus, the people of the world could receive the “golden ticket,” granting them access to eternal life.

 This ideological construction is wrong from root to stem.

 The gift of life is not transactional; it is free. We do not have to ask for it, just as we did not ask to be born. Like true love, eternal life comes to us from the creator without preconditions. It is comes to us simply because we are…and because we are, we are a part of the divine that can never be destroyed.

 Listen!

 If you trust in the teachings of Jesus you will find peace in this world, you will understand that the things we endure here: pain, suffering, alienation, uncertainty, hunger, disease and death, that these are all temporary.

 This is the heart of the Gospel.

 Belief, is not required to gain entrance to heaven; belief merely allows us to see the world of light and life beyond the veil of materiality that we are all entrenched in.

 Know this.

 There is no condemnation in God, nor in the ministry of Jesus. There is only hope and love and mercy. No one is condemned because they refuse to believe in the scriptures, in Christian doctrine or the dogma of the church; no one is condemned

 God pours out continuously the divine love that sustains all creations, no-one is beyond its reach.

 There is no magic power in a name, or an article of belief. However, if you do not trust in the way of Jesus (and trust is the meaning of faith), if you are not able to trust in the way, if you are selfish instead of giving, if you are malicious instead of loving, if you are harmful instead of helpful then you will suffer in this world, not as a punishment for what you did or did not do, but as the natural consequence for that type of behavior…you will suffer in your friendships and you will suffer in yourself. More importantly, you will be a source of suffering to other.

 Whereas, to trust in the way of Jesus is to liberate yourself in the here and now, it is to acquire freedom in the present reality, it is a blessing to everyone who comes to it and to all whom they encounter.

 

First Reading – 2 Chronicles 36:14 - 16, 19 - 23 ©

God's Wrath and Mercy are Revealed in the Exile and Release of His People

All the heads of the priesthood, and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that the Lord had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since he wished to spare his people and his house. But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until at last the wrath of the Lord rose so high against his people that there was no further remedy.

Their enemies burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it. The survivors were deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; they were to serve him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. This is how the word of the Lord was fulfilled that he spoke through Jeremiah, ‘Until this land has enjoyed its sabbath rest, until seventy years have gone by, it will keep sabbath throughout the days of its desolation.’

And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 136(137):1 - 6 ©

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

By the rivers of Babylon

  there we sat and wept,

  remembering Zion;

on the poplars that grew there

  we hung up our harps.

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

For it was there that they asked us,

  our captors, for songs,

  our oppressors, for joy.

‘Sing to us,’ they said,

  ‘one of Zion’s songs.’

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O how could we sing

  the song of the Lord

  on alien soil?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

  let my right hand wither!

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O let my tongue

  cleave to my mouth

  if I remember you not,

if I prize not Jerusalem

  above all my joys!

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 2:4 - 10 ©

You Have Been Saved through Grace

God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 3:16

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son: everyone who believes in him has eternal life.

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

 

The Gospel According to John 3:14 – 21 ©

God Sent his Son so that Through Him the World Might be Saved

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.

On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.

And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

 The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)