Reflection on Today's Readings, 4th Sunday of Lent, Year B, March 14th, 2021
Texts: 2Chr. 36:14-16.19-23; Ps. 137: 1-6; Eph. 2:4-10; John 14-21
The message of today's readings is summarized in the words of St. Paul: "God's saving justice given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack God's glory, and all are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Jesus Christ" (Rom. 3:22-24).
Today's first reading tells us how we could stubbornly choose to be lost. The reading tells us that the people of Israel was drawn away from God by the desire to be like other nations. It says, "All the leading priests and people were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem." There are many distractions in the world, many voices calling for our attentions. They are many teachings and philosophies well packaged and presented as the gospel of Christ, but they are not; they are made to appeal to our emotions, our interests, problems and desires and to appear as answers to our problems. The distractions are not about teachings and philosophies only but also about the trends of the time, what is trending in our environment. This manifests in dresses, music, dance, drug abuse, corruption and bribery, syncretism, etc. When we yield to the distractions, we become unfaithful to God and pollute our faith, just like the people of Israel. The Israelites followed the abominable practices of the nations around them and became unfaithful to God and polluted the house of the Lord.
We will become unyielding to the distractions if we keep in our hearts the words of our Lord, Jesus Christ: "you do not belong to this world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world" (John 15:19b). We now belong to Christ because He has chosen us out of the world. If we hold these words in our hearts dearly, we will triumph over the distractions of this world.
When we lose our identity, when we do not know who we are, we will constantly make wrong choices, reject right counsel and refuse the right way. Hence, the first reading says, "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his word, and scoffing at his prophets, till the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy." The people of Israel losed sense of identity and they started imitating the nations around them; they forgot that, though they were in their midst, they were of different origin. They belonged to God while the nations around them belonged to the world; they were born of God while the the nations around them were born of the world. If they knew the distinction between them and the nations around them, they would have known what to take from them. They rejected God's counsel and refused the way He showed them because they had lost sense of identity. We have to know today that our identity is formed by the words of God (scriptures, tradition and magisterium of the Church) and as such whatever is contrary to the words is damaging to our character.
Then, because of their constant disobedience, they incurred the anger of God. The anger of God visited them to teach them that disobedience is destructive. Some of the people became victims of war while the rest went into exile because of their sins, but God, out of His mercy brought them back to the land. Their freedom was planned by God and brought about by Him alone. Hence, it is said, "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 'Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.'” Their deliverance was not due to their own merit or effort, but the merit of the merciful love of God.
Just as the deliverance of the people of Israel is not due to their merit but the merit of God's merciful love, so also our salvation is not due to our own merit, but the merit of God's mercy and love. This God's merciful love manifests in Jesus Christ. Hence, in the gospel reading, it is said, "Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." St. Paul reminds us thus: "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus". We are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ. The salvation, here, is a deliverance from the power of sin, and reconciliation with God; it is being brought back to life again after being dead because of sins. St. Paul makes a take-home point that should be noted: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." We are saved to be abound in good works. This means being saved is not only about deliverance from sins, but also doing good works. We cannot claim to be saved without good works. Today, we are encouraged to hold on to our faith in Jesus Christ, for that is the surest way to attain salvation.
Lord God, we thank you for your love you manifest in the gift of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant that we may hold on to our faith in him and by so doing attain salvation. Amen.
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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