READINGS: 2 CHRON 36:14-16,19-23; PSA 136:1-6; EPH 2:4-10; JN 3:14-21
THEME: ECCE LIGNUM CHRISTI!
Dearest in Christ, we celebrate today the fourth Sunday in Lent traditionally known as Laetare Sunday. Even in our penitence, the church calls us also to rejoice because we have a God who is able to restore what we have lost through sin.
1.DISPLACED BY SIN, RESTORED BY GOD’S LOVE
The first reading (2 Chron 36:14-16,19-23) tells us of the story of the people of Israel which is a story of sin-punishment-divine mercy-divine restoration. The people of Israel abandoned their covenant with God. God made effort to call back their attention by sending prophets and messengers to them, but they continued in their sinful ways. In different ways, they ridiculed God, even defiled his holy temple. As a punishment, God displaced them from the land upon which he settled them. Exile took the people very far from their land, and they became slaves in Babylon. Because of their sin, the people were taken from their land of freedom to the land of servitude.
However, even though the people were displaced from their land, they were not displaced from the love God has for them. Exile was not God’s rejection of the people but God’s corrective measure for the infidelity of his people. After 70 years of exile, God brought his people back to their land, not through the might of their swords nor through the sharpness of their arrows, but through a pagan king, Cyrus. Just as God used a king (Nebuchadnezzar) to punish his people, so also did he use a king (Cyrus) to restore them
2.DEAD THROUGH SIN, ENLIVENED BY THE GRACE OF GOD
In the Second reading, St. Paul tells us of how the grace of God in Christ Jesus is instrumental to our life in God. We are dead by our sins. That is to say, sin renders us powerless and inactive in the life which God has called us to live. When we were still in this state of hopelessness, God sent his Son to come and restore us.
3.BITTEN BY SIN, HEALED BY THE CROSS OF CHRIST
In the gospel reading, Jesus says “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” With this statement Jesus refers to Numbers 21:1-9. During their journey through desert to the Promised Land, on several occasions the people of Israel murmured against God. The sin of murmuring is always taken severely by God (cf Num 14:1- 4, 11-12; 16:41,45; 21:4-5,6). When we look at the people of Israel and Moses we see the difference between murmuring because of our difficulties, and then going to God in prayer with our difficulties. Whenever the people of Israel encountered difficulty on their way, they ended up murmuring. But the same words of their murmuring become a prayer when Moses takes them up in prayer (dialogue) with God. Murmur not, pray instead because while murmuring brings punishment, prayer brings solution.
In the passage which Jesus refers to (Numbers 21:1-9), the people of Israel murmured against God, and as a punishment, God sent poisonous serpents among the people and they bite them, causing many of the people to die (Num 21:6). But when the people recognized their mistakes, they turned to Moses, their intercessor, now, no longer with murmuring, but prayer intentions for God’s forgiveness and restoration. God asked Moses to make a poisonous snake and hang it on a pole, so that whoever is bitten, and he/she looks at this image on the pole, may live.
Hence, the bronze serpent on the pole becomes a healing remedy for the snakes’ bite. But for one to be healed by this bronze serpent, he/she must look at this bronze serpent on a pole.
Dearest friends, we have all been bitten, and we continue to be bitten by this serpent because of our impatient with and murmuring against God. The poisonous serpent of jealousy, anger, immoral acts, envy, lies, corruption, deceit, infidelity in marriage, injustice, unjust treatment etc is killing all of us, rendering us spiritually dead. The people of Israel were able to recognize that they were dying and that they needed help. Have we recognized how much we have been dead spiritually by these poisonous serpents?
Jesus has been sent as a remedy for these poisonous serpents and he hangs on the cross for us, just like the bronze serpent of Moses. But just as the people of Israel had to look at the bronze serpent on the pole for them to be healed, so also must we look up to the cross of Christ. The grace of God has given us Christ, mounting him on the cross for our sake, but unless we recognize that we have been bitten, bring ourselves to where Jesus hangs on the cross, and then lift our eyes up to him on the cross, we will be dying spiritually everyday by our sins.
Although sin takes us away from our position before God, God sends his Son Christ Jesus in order to restore us to our position as God’s children. But we have to accept Christ, go to him, lift up our eyes and hearts to him, fix our gazes before the Holy Cross of Christ, for from this Cross flows the water that washes us, and the blood that purifies us. Christ has come as God’s grace, but only those who believe, only through our faith in him, can we access to the grace of God in Christ, the grace of God, which is Christ, the grace of God which Christ gives.
The love of God for us brings Christ to the Cross, but only our faith in Christ can take us to this Cross of our Salvation. And until we accept this Salvation-Hanging-On-The-Cross, we cannot have a personal taste of God’s Love. Recognize that you are dead spiritually; come to the mercy and love of God hanging on the Cross; Lift up your eyes and look at him, then you will not only be healed but also be restored.
ECCE LIGNUM CHRISTI! BEHOLD THE CROSS OF CHRIST! BEHOLD THE GRACE OF GOD! BEHOLD OUR SALVATION!
HENRY CHUKWUEZUGO NNAMAH
CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF AGULERI