Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
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1st Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-23. For their sins the people were exiled to Babylon. But God’s mercy will bring them back.
2nd Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10. We are saved not through our own efforts but through the mercy of God.
Gospel: John 3:14-21. God sent his only Son, not to condemn but to save us.
In today’s gospel (John 3:14-21) Jesus sets out contradictions between those who believe and those who do not, those who come to the light and those who love darkness, those who do what is true and those who do evil.
I don’t think Jesus is setting out those contradictions with the idea that we are to categorize ourselves and others. Which ones are you? Which ones am I? Aren’t we really both at the same time? That’s my experience. What about you?
I used to think those contradictions were a simple choice, an either/or situation, this or that. I no longer think that.
Most of the time I want to deny, ignore, or turn away from the contradictions in my life. They are not easy to look at. They remind me what really matters and is most important to me, and the ways I’ve forgotten that. They let me know I’ve gotten off track. They’re often painful. They hold things before me I don’t want to see. They ask changes of me I don’t want to make. They reveal my wounds, fears, and limitations. They remind me that sometimes I settle for easy and superficial solutions.
But what if contradictions are the tension in which we all live? What if every contradiction is a messenger telling us about a deeper truth?
What if we were to ‘lift up’ the contradictions in our lives and take a look at them?“ Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). This lifting up is about more than a snake on a pole or Jesus on the cross. This is the lifting up our contradictions.
Whatever forms our contradictions might take they are ultimately about the contradiction between life and death. Each contains the other. The serpent that poisons also heals. The cross that kills is also the tree of life. Every life will end in death and every death holds a new life. That’s the contradiction lifted up before us today.
And I wonder what that looks like in your life today? What if we used Lent as a time to lift up our contradictions – to listen, pay attention, and look deeper? What might the contradictions in your life be asking of you today? What new ways of seeing and living are they offering you?
4th Sunday in Lent
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 389,457-458, 846, 1019, 1507: Christ as Saviour
CCC 679: Christ the Lord of eternal life
CCC 55: God wants to give man eternal life
CCC 710: Israel’s exile foreshadowed the Passion
It is difficult to find a common theme in the readings but it is Laetare Sunday and so ‘joy’ might be the leitmotif of the celebration.
In the Penitential rite we might use these sort of petitions based on the Gospel reading:
Lord Jesus, you came into the world,
not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved.
Lord have mercy.
Christ Jesus, lifted high on the Cross,
you have shown us how great is God’s love.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, help us to live in your light
so that others may see the love of God in our lives.
Lord, have mercy.
Hymns could reflect the motif of joy, especially the Taize chant ‘Rejoice in the Lord, always’, perhaps as the people come to the Lord’s Table. The refrain obviates the need for books!
Finally, it is also Mothering Sunday. Remind the people of this ancient tradition based originally on the texts of the pre-Vatican II Lectionary but still good to distinguish this day from the American ‘Mother’s Day’. Could the children bake simnel cakes to present to their Mums which could be brought up in the Offertory Procession and given to Mums at the end of Mass? If not small bouquets of flowers could be used.
These hymns have been chosen from different sources.
Rejoice, the Lod is King (CFE619) L326)
God is love, and where true love is (CFE214, L242)
Amazing Grace (CFE40, L846, LHON131, TCH203)
Lord, the light of your love is shining (CFE388, L770, LHON453)
The light of Christ (CFE703, L747, LHON657)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
