Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missal March-April 2024

4th Sunday of Lent (B) “Laetare”
4th week, psalter

FIRST READING

From the second book of Chronicles (2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23)
In those days, all the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the people multiplied their infidelities, imitating in everything the abominations of the other peoples, and they defiled the temple that the Lord had consecrated to himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent his messengers promptly and unceasingly to warn them, because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and ridiculed his prophets to such an extent that the Lord's anger against his people reached its climax, with no remedy left. Then [his enemies] set fire to the Lord's temple, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its precious objects. The king [of the Chaldeans] deported to Babylon those who had escaped the sword, and they became his slaves and the slaves of his sons until the advent of the Persian kingdom, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah: “Until the land has made up for its Sabbaths, it shall rest throughout all the days of its desolation, until seventy years are completed.” In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, who had this proclamation made throughout his kingdom, and 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. He has charged me to build him a temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to his people, may the Lord, his God, be with him, and let him go up!’” - The word of God.

Commentary on the first reading

Here is a fine example of a “theology of history.” We see external events: wars, deportations, periods of exile, return to one's homeland, and so on; and if we try to interpret them from a merely human perspective, we will have more or less partial readings of these events. The author of the Bible, however, gives the explanation from God's point of view. The magnificent temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans because the Israelites had been unfaithful to the Lord and had mocked and despised all the prophets sent by him. After seventy years of separation and deportation, they return to Israel through the benevolence of the Persian king Cyrus, who grants this return because God told him to! It turns out that Cyrus, a pagan, is more obedient to the Lord than the Israelites! And in fact, on this occasion, he is. This way of interpreting events and reading history should also be part of our discernment regarding the present. We can read history from a human point of view or, instead, from the point of view of people of faith, seeking to recognize in what happens to us the signs and traces of God's work.

SECOND READING

From the letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (Eph 2:4-10)
Brothers and sisters, God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, brought us to life with Christ when we were dead in transgressions - by grace you have been saved. He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not from you, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, so that we should live in them. - The word of God. 

Commentary on the second reading

Saint Paul says that we are not saved by works, but by faith in Christ. Put this way, the statement seems to contradict the teaching of Saint James, who writes in his Letter that faith without works is dead. Which of the two is right? Naturally, Sacred Scripture cannot contradict itself, and in fact it is enough to read the words that follow Paul's statement in today's passage to resolve the matter. We are told that we are his handiwork! If we have been raised and seated in the heavens (expressions meaning that we are given to live in God's grace), then we are his handiwork and, as such, everything we do will in some way be a sign of his presence. Therefore, we should not worry about doing good things, but about being a good work, that is, living in God's grace. Paraphrasing the myth of King Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold, we can say that Christians transform everything they touch into an event of grace if they themselves are in God's grace, if they pray and love him.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (Jn 3:14-21)
At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light came into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes toward the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” - The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

Jesus presents himself as the dividing line between good and evil, between salvation and perdition. All people on earth, whether they know it or not, find in adherence to Christ (or in rejection of him) the meaning of everything they are and do, now in time and tomorrow in eternity. Yet people seem to live and continually worry about secondary, if not outright useless and harmful, things, as though the eternal salvation of the soul counted for nothing, as though we were always to live on this earth. And yet, “God […] so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish.” The lives of the saints bear witness to this; they were not perfect people who always lived in ecstasy, but sinners, like everyone else, who nevertheless loved the Lord immeasurably and placed all their trust in him. We are not asked to climb mountains or fast on bread and water every day, but to believe that Jesus is our savior and entrust our entire lives to him. “Even if I had committed every crime imaginable,” wrote Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, “I would have the same confidence; I feel that this whole multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a blazing fire.”