The Greatness of God’s Merciful Love!

 (Homily 4^th Sunday of Lent –Year B)

     An in-depth reflection on the readings of today reveals that the themes running through the three readings are mercy and love. It was out of his unfathomable mercy that God never relented in his effort in bringing back the Israelites when they strayed. St. John in today’s Gospel passage evoked those reassuring words that depict the density and immensity of God’s mercy and love, thus: “for God so loved the world”. And in the epistle reading, St. Paul draws the matter from theological to its existential implication “God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ”. Be that as it may, though the readings of today hinge more on God’s merciful love, however, the second reading and the gospel implicitly or explicitly introduced the theme of the Cross, the theme per excellence of this liturgical season. And as our Paschal celebration draws closer we cannot but be reminded that Jesus did not accept the Cross for fun, rather he did to show us the high price of his love, the Psalmist affirmed that the price is too high (cf. Ps. 49:8a). Therefore, behind the Cross, we cannot but see a borderless love. Above all else, however, the image of God presented today is that of a loving and merciful Father, who is in a relentless and persistent search for his sons and daughters. If he reaches you with his words, make a U-turn back to him, pay him back love with love. Make a move!

     The first reading (2 Chron. 36:14-16.19-23) presents a consequential explanation of the exile, as a divine punishment. From the parlance of the chronicler, the punishment was both for the pre-exilic priests and the people, for they failed to listen to the pre-exilic prophets. The book of Chronicles presents in a condensed manner the history of Israel, and at the heart of this history is the affirmation thus: “In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests and the people added infidelity to infidelity”. Drawing the issue further, one could opine that this not only depicts the historical reality of the Israelites but that of humanity as whole. They practiced all sorts of abomination and polluted God’s temple. The writer then enumerated the different steps that God took to bring them back, “God send messenger after messenger to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God. Despised his warnings and scoffed at his prophets” (2Chron. 36:15-16). 

     God persistently sent messengers but they refused to turn back to God. Truly, this indicates that God’s mercy and love go before his justice, for God did not condemn them out rightly, rather he went in search of them with his merciful love. But consequently, their stubbornness of heart brought about God’s wrath and justice, for the city and the temple were destroyed and they were taken to exile by the Chaldeans. The captivating fact about God’s mercy or love is that it does not give up on us, for even when the people were in exile out of their stubbornness of heart, God’s mercy was still searching and waiting for them. Indeed, we could say that God’s mercy and justice are intertwined, for in Hebrew ‘tsedakah’ can stand for both charity (mercy) and justice. Behold, at the heart of the spirituality of Lent is the rediscovery of God’s mercy and love, a mercy that never ends (Lam. 3:22) and a love that endures forever (Ps. 136:1).

     Apparently, the reading does not relate to either the epistle or the Gospel readings, and as such one may wonder the reason for its choice. Indeed, the idea behind the choice revolves around the fact that the exile in Babylon was a type of Christian Lent, and the return forms a sort of Crucifixion and Resurrection. And indeed, the theme of the cross implicitly or explicitly dovetails into the three readings.

     In the second reading (Eph.2:4-10) St. Paul affirmed that “God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ”. St. Paul further buttressed that we are saved by God’s grace. Indeed, grace brings God’s merciful love at the doorpost of our hearts and life. It is this gratuitous gift (Grace) of God that merited us Salvation. Furthermore, this passage associates baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ. It goes further to buttress the point raised in other Pauline writings on death, resurrection and baptism (cf. Col.2:12, Rm. 6). Ephesians 2 opines that we are not only risen with Christ that we are already in heaven with him. Be that as it may, the fact of being in heaven with Christ should not induce in us the feeling of being arrived or intoxicated of being in heaven. For this, the author further added that by grace you have been saved. This was expounded in v.8 “by grace through faith”. Indeed, the Pauline affirmation that we are in heaven already shouldn’t make us relent in our daily effort to live as God’s children, rather it should serve as a constant reminder for our relentless moral effort to live with heaven in view.

     The Gospel (Jn. 3:14-21) presents the continuation of the dialogue and encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. Prior to this moment, Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night to ask what he must do to inherit the kingdom of God and our Lord told him that he must be born again. In that encounter Nicodemus asked threefold questions (vv. 2.4.9) and each of the questions gave rise to a pronouncement from Jesus. The first part of the discourse explains the necessity for rebirth as an essential requirement for entrance into the Kingdom of God. The second part from which the passage of today’s gospel is taken, explains that this rebirth can only be realized through the “lifting up” of the Son of Man, that is, the death and glorification of Christ.

      We may well affirm that God’s ultimate desire for everyone is salvation. And for the realization of this desire, Jesus speaks of his total self-giving and the mystery of the Cross. In fact, St. Paul puts it thus: “Christ Jesus, who offered himself as a ransom for all” (1Tim. 2:5b-6a). Jesus indicated a symbol to Nicodemus, that bronze serpent that was lifted by Moses for the healing of the Israelites bitten by the snakes (cf. Num. 21:4-9). Similarly, “the Son of man will be lifted up” (Jn. 3:14), Jesus will be lifted up and he will save who turns his gaze towards him. The serpent that Moses raised is nothing but a prophetic prefiguration of the crucifixion of the Son of man. In the context of the Israelites whoever that looked on the serpent was healed, but now we are called to turn our gaze towards the Son of Man, therefore now whoever that looks at the Crucified with the eyes of faith, will have eternal life. The Israelites that looked at the serpent regained only physical health, but whoever that fixes his gaze on the Crucified-Risen Lord gains fullness of life (Jn. 10:10) and the blood and water that gushed forth from his pierced side (Jn.19:34) is a true fountain of eternal life.

     In the passage, the evangelist affirms strongly that the cross is an act of divine love per excellence: “for God so loved the world that he gave his Only Son” (3:16). Verse 16 reveals the initiative of the Father, who offers his Son, a supreme expression of his love for the world. This is equally in connection with the opening words of the epistle reading. Without mincing words, at the heart of the Johannine affirmation about God’s love, is the revelation that God wants our salvation at all cost, God “wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth” (1Tm. 2:4). Love is greater than sin. The phrase “God so loved the world” is the central verse of the Gospel of John, and even believed to be the summary of the Gospel and the entire Scripture. It is a verse with words replete with stupor each time we hear it. It is an illuminating love. Indeed, with this “love” the night of Nicodemus and our nights are illumined and we are reborn, we are reborn in faith, hope and trust. This verse is really captivating, for it is not only man that is loved, but the world, all the created order. The term ‘world’ has a positive connotation in the present context, and it designates humanity in her entirety. As such, if God so loved even the earth, we too have to love it. In that phrase Jesus reveals that God has consideration for the world, for man, little wonder, He willingly lost his Son in order to purchase us, “Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us” (Rm. 8:32). For this St. Paul asserted that, “through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace” (Eph. 1:17). The psalmist both captured our helplessness and the greatness of God’s merciful love thus “But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God, the price for himself is too high” (Ps. 49:7-8a). God through Jesus Christ paid this price that is too high, at the cost of his blood. God so loved the world, but man is destroying it. God so loved us, but we are instead killing each other. God’s love should propel us to love each other too!

     Our evangelist puts the verb “God so loved the world” in past tense (aorist tense), to indicate that the love God has for us is not something to be realized in the future or something that happened momentarily, rather the tense of the verb indicates the certainty and realism of this love, for he continues to love us even when we stray. With the death of his Son, God demonstrates that his love for us is not a long distance and disinterested love affair. In our Guanellian Spiritualty, we would say that God’s love is a love that is felt and realized with presence. No doubt, this takes us closer to our Guanellian charismatic experience; because in order to express love and care to the poor, there must be presence. Love therefore, for every authentic Christian and Guanellian cannot be devoid of presence. You don’t love from a distance, love is realized and actualized with concrete actions, gestures and gazes.                                 

     Beloved brothers and sisters, we have to ask ourselves the pertinent question, concerning where we have kept our gaze today, is our gaze fixed on Jesus or on all sorts of idols? Remember the condition for being saved is remaining focused on Him with faith. St. John added an encouraging but emblematic verdict that “though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:19). Unfortunately, this preference for darkness and evil still continues today. The initiative of God that was manifested through Christ was not aimed at the extermination of the wicked, rather to the salvation of the world. And the fate of every man is dependent on his choice, if he opens up to the love of God or rejects it, if he chooses darkness or Light. Lord Jesus help us to understand and appreciate the high price of your love, and to pay you back love with love!

Wishing you all a grace-filled Sunday!!!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu)