22/03/2009 - 4th. Sunday in Lent
- B
1st. Reading 2Cor 36,14-16.19-23 Psalm 136 2nd. Reading Eph 2,4-10 Gospel Jn
3,14-21
"Our Father"! These words bring together heaven and earth! They lift
us up without forgetting our condition! They are words that touch our hearts
and of those who hear us praying it, but at the same time, they must touch God
too. Let us use our imagination: it could help us to consolidate our trust in
him and a more generous love. Hearing himself called Our Father, he is "obliged"
to remember all the promises given to the prophets and all the words said by
Jesus. He is to remember all the covenants made with men, to start with Noah,
with Abram, Moses, David and, above all, the new and eternal covenant made by
the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. We say "Our Father", and he,
moved with compassion, remembers that Jesus promised us that he is merciful,
up to the point that both the pious and the bad, the good and the evil person
were going to benefit from his mercy. He is committed, as Jesus said, that he
is to turn his eyes on us and nothing is going to be out of his sight, no bird
nor the flower on the edge of the field, neither to our angel that speaks good
of us to him, so that we come to know his secrets, we who are small and humble.
Saying Our Father, mean also that we are encouraged to get rid of those egoistic
areas which are always alive in the corner of our hearts. We are helped to go
over that jealousy that found its first place in the heart of Cain that grew
to the point of tragedy. Given that the Father is "our", we rejoice
also in each and every one who is his son, and we are to be happy to know and
see that he loves them as much as he loves us. If we make this word "our"
sink in our hearts, there won't be more space for jealousy: when we see that
someone is better than us, we are to be happy because we can see the goodness
of the Father towards a brother of our family. Saying "our", the horizon
opens before us: we become able to see far and become sensitive of the situations
of other peoples and other nations, in a way that we won't consider them strangers
and start to feel the heaviness of their sufferings.
It seems as if the First Reading is written for our times. Even between the
Christians is common the temptation of getting accustomed to the ways of those
who have no faith, of who rejects to be in Jesus Christ and also, openly, bring
down the commandments of God. I am not saying only for the fashion that put
in evidence the body to provoke sensual thoughts and desires, but also, and
above all, the way of thinking of the human life and the family life apart of
the divine law. "The Lord's rage has reached its climax, without any remedy".
A people without any order can easily fall into the hands of other peoples without
scruples, who, not withstanding their religious ignorance, obey God better that
the same people of God. Hence the people of God was taken into exile, lived
in slavery for 70 years, face to face with his invulnerability, until they turned
their heart back to the God of life and peace! God is always ready to bring
back to him those who ran away from him even so that is what he desires. Unfortunately
those who run away from him, being a single person or a whole nation, runs into
sorrowful consequences, that marks him and make him suffer for a long time.
The Gospel reminds us of another biblical story very significant: those who
complained against God in the desert were beaten by poisons snakes, and were
dying. Sin, rebellion against God, produces the rebellion of creation against
man. It is God, who is always faithful to man, his creature, to enter and give
him a possibility of redemption: those who look up at the bronze serpent raised
up by Moses on a pole loose hope, because the love of God has thought for his
sinful situation and sent his only Son for salvation. He was lifted up on the
cross "so that whoever believes in him, would not die, but has eternal
life".
We are preparing ourselves to renew, during the Easter Vigil, our yes to live
immersed in Jesus, in his death and resurrection: it is the friendship with
him that will save us from sin, and that slowly will lift us up from our pain
and sorrow that our sin has produced in the world. Jesus is the light, whom
we, by sinning, refused. Now we need and want to recuperate the lost time and
forces, and give the chance to the Lord to restore our wounds with the mercy
of which the Father is rich, as st. Paul says. We believe in the Son of God
to enjoy salvation and to, once again, reach out to others doing "good
works" already set up by God on our way in this world. This is to be first
and foremost the obedience to his commandments, and then the generosity toward
our brothers in need. To them we won't reject the material help, of which they
might have a need, but above all we want to continue to pray for them, then
the listening of the Word of God, and our witness. Of this there is a great
need to sustain the faith of those who are lapsed.