Homily: 4th Sunday in Lent – Cycle B
We are now a little more than halfway
through Lent and we come to this Sunday, named Laetare, which calls us to “rejoice”. Perhaps you are having your best Lent ever so
far and so this invitation to “rejoice” is quite a welcome one. If so, good for you! Keep up that awesome work! If you are anything like me, however, your
Lent has been a mixed-bag so far: either some steps forward mixed with some
steps back or even a struggle to get it off the ground all together. If so, then it might be a little annoying
that the Church tells us to “rejoice” at this point.
No, if you’re anything like me, you’ve
experienced a situation like I have sometime during your Lent. My story goes something like this: I commit
to giving up that favorite sin of mine (you know, the sin that I am not happy
about committing, but for which make excuses whenever I do it… that’s right,
the one that I am annoyed that I have to confess almost every time I go to
confession), but then Satan throws me an unexpected curveball and, before I
know it, I’m right back into that sin.
Frustrated, I wonder if I will ever overcome it.
Recently, this story played out
again. When it did, I was really upset
with myself. I had trouble sleeping the
whole night because I felt so bothered by my failure to respond to grace and my
prideful inclinations that made me think that I could “play” with Satan’s
temptations and get away without falling into sin (don’t play with Satan’s
temptations, people!). The next day I
woke up earlier than normal, still bothered by my failure. Then this phrase from Saint Paul’s First
Letter to the Corinthians came to my mind: “What I do is discipline my body.” It was a cold winter morning with a biting
wind and I knew it. But I was convinced
that I needed to discipline my body so I decided to get up and go for a run
outside. I’ve done this before, but that
day it was particularly miserable. About
halfway through the run, however, as I was thinking about how miserable it was,
another insight came into my mind: God put that thought there this morning
because he wants me to discipline my body, not to punish me, but so that I can
win the battle today. He’s not happy
with my failure yesterday, but he’s still on my side and he wants me to win
today. Now, while that didn’t change how
physically miserable the run was, I did begin to feel a sense of hope that
pulled me out from the wallowing in my guilt that I had been doing.
Friends, I think that this is the
story of the Scriptures this weekend: that God allows us to suffer for our
sins, but always with his eye towards the restoration that he wants to make in
our lives. Just look at the reading from
the book of Chronicles. It describes the
great infidelities that the Israelite people had committed against God; and how
time and again God had sent his prophets to call them to repentance and warn
them of the suffering that would come to them if they continued in their
ways. It describes how the Israelites
ignored the prophets, even mocking and mistreating them, until there was
nothing further God could do; and so he took back his hand of protection from
them and allowed their enemies from the north, the Babylonian empire, to come
and destroy Jerusalem, along with the Temple within it, who then took the
Israelites into exile. He did this to “discipline
their bodies”, so to speak, so that, when the fullness of their discipline had
been fulfilled, he could raise up Cyrus, king of Persia, over the Babylonian
empire, who would show benevolence to the Israelites and allow them to return
to Judah and rebuild the Temple so that they could worship God once again. God allowed the Israelites to suffer for
their sins, but remained “on their side”: knowing that, through their
suffering, they were being made stronger so as to win the next battle with the
forces of the evil one.
The ultimate rendition of this story
comes in the Gospel reading, of course.
While Chronicles documents how God worked for this particular people,
whom he had chosen to be his light to the nations, the Gospel reading reveals
the fullness of that plan. In one of the
most famous passages in the Gospels, we read that “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.” As beautiful
and powerful as that verse is, the one that follows it adds emphasis that
applies to our reflection here today: “For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that
the world might be saved through him.” In other words, although God may have allowed
us to suffer on account of our sins, he remained on our side, waiting until our
“bodies” had been “disciplined” fully so that he could send his Son: not to “finish
us off”, so to speak, but rather to save us and restore us to his friendship.
Friends, when we look at our failures
this way—and when we look at the suffering that has come along with them in
this way (even if that suffering has only been a bit of mental anguish over
failing to live up to our values)—then we truly do have reason to “rejoice”:
because God, who never fails to acknowledge our sins (and the punishments due
to us because of them) is, nonetheless, “rich in mercy” and desires not to
condemn us, but rather that we would be restored so as to win the next battle
against Satan and his wiles.
And so, if you are feeling a bit down
about your failure to live up to your ideals this Lent (regardless of how
specific or vague they might have been), do not despair! God has not given up on you! Rather, he wants you to repent, to confess
your sins and to receive his forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
and to allow your body to be disciplined by him so as to make you stronger
against the attacks of the evil one so that you can win the next battle. Christ has already won the war. In him, with bodies made pure through
discipline, we can win each battle. This
Eucharist that we celebrate is both our reminder of God’s care and our strength
for the fight; and so let us rejoice in it.
May our rejoicing carry us through the remaining discipline of Lent; so
that, with minds and hearts made pure, we may truly celebrate the victory of
Christ’s Resurrection.
Given at All Saints
Parish: Logansport, IN – March 10th & 11th, 2018
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