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March 17, 2012The Fourth Sunday in Lent…Laetare Sunday:
This weekend the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday, with its prevail-ing theme of "joy." Both the entrance antiphon and the prayer over the gifts echoes this great joy we are all called to have in our hearts as we look forward to the Resurrection of the Lord on Easter Sunday.
This Sunday’s vestments are rose colored, and thanks to the memory of Ella Wulf we now have such vestments for our liturgical celebration. Our "joy" is meant to be the realiza-tion that we who were created in the image and likeness of God now share in His divine attributes, and as such, may also share in His divine life for all eternity, partaking of His never-ending joy; we are also called to be sharers in His earthly sufferings. We can-not wear the crown of glory if we do not cloak ourselves in His suffering—sharing in His life means sharing completely in Him— who suffered humiliation, pain, loss, and death. For in His suffer-ing He conquered death and transforms it into the entrance way to eternal life. In our sufferings—in the divorces, the loss of children or spouses, in unemployment, in the cancer or chronic illnesses which we endure every day—in the anguish of mental illness and loneliness—we configure our human lives with the humanity of Christ. Suffering helps us to fully understand the human condition and calls us to be empathetic with others around us who suffer even more. From this human pain the goodness of humanity wells -up and comes forth…in the Tsunamis and earthquake, we seek to help those who have lost everything; in the hunger of starving people, we seek to nourish and ease the pain in their bellies; in the loss of a loved one, we seek to comfort the shattered heart. It is in the depths of sorrow and loss, pain and suffering, that humanity imitates the compassion and love of God by reaching out to our sisters and brothers in need.
"Throughout human history, humans have struggled to articulate their experiences and image of God. We hear God is our shepherd, our King. Today in the Gospel of John, God is Father. He is more intimately connected, as Father is to His children, than
a shepherd is to his sheep; and He is certainly more emotionally connected to His Children than a king is to his sub-jects." (Sourcebook 2012) So, how do we connect with God to-day? What is God to us when we have turned away from Him? He is the Father that never abandons or abuses, the Father who "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." (John 3:16) As Catholics today we must come to hear in this Gospel the idea that the "Crucifixion will be the source of healing and hope for all who look to him," and not a sign of failure or loss. Death did not take Jesus from us, rather it gave Him to the Father and in Him we now may share in the Father’s life for all eternity…if we but believe in Him and live through Him the com-passion and love of Christ. In today’s Gospel, scripture scholars tell us that the word used to mean "lift up" as in the serpent on the pole and Jesus on the cross, in Greek, can also mean "to exalt." Suffering leads to Christ’s exaltation: our human suffering can also lead us to being "lifted up." May the rest of Lent give us the opportunity to realize that.
