IV SUNDAY OF LENT B 24

4th LENTEN SUNDAY: 10 MARCH 2024: 2 CHRONICLES 36. 14-16, 19-23; EPHESIANS 2. 4-10; JOHN 3. 14-21   Focus: Love that saves! Indicative: True love gives and God's love is true love, because He gives without measure, even to the extent of giving His very self   1.      Yet again, the Word of God impresses upon us the nature, the depth and the extent of God's love. In fact, already at the creation itself, God testifies to this love. He loves the humans so much that He gives His own divine image and likeness to them. 2.      But sadly, humans disfigure this divine identity due to sin. Thereupon, man loses the immortal life, the dignity, bliss and glory. He falls into death, misery and ignominy. But yet again, God's love comes into action. 3.      He does not leave man in such a state of loss and distress. He initiates a story, a journey of salvation, a salvation history. He rewrites the pages of slavery, bondage and misery of the humankind. 4.      He enters into their life situations, intervening and acting mightily and delivering and liberating them from slavery and exile. He establishes covenants with them. He makes them prosper in the promised land. 5.      One such concrete instance of God's mighty intervention is depicted in today's first reading from the book of Chronicles. God wonderfully inspires and steers Cyrus, the king of Persia, a pagan king, to take the initiative toward the building of the temple. 6.      But again, sin and evil raise their ugly head. The human ignominy and misery continue. So once more, God had to intervene. If sin abounded, grace must superabound. If the old man brought downfall, a new man must bring upliftment. No human being can rise up to this task. 7.      Hence, God Himself shoulders the responsibility. God sends His own Son, as the incarnate Saviour, in the person of Jesus Christ. In and through Jesus, yet again God continues to shower upon the sinful humanity abundant streams of His mercy. 8.      It is a loving mercy that condones, forgives, reconciles and restores the fallen man."God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, as a ransom for human salvation". Thus, Jesus is the face, the mirror, the replica, the manifestation, the authentication and the testimony of God's own love. 9.      In sensitivity and solidarity, he becomes the ever-flowing streams of mercy and compassion. Even while we are sinners, he deigns to suffer and die for us, and offers liberation and a graced life here and now, and eternal life and salvation there and then. 10.  Faith is that graced life, which lives grace, once being liberated from the clutches of sin. So, seen from the divine standpoint, faith is the gratuitous gift of God, a sign of grace and God's love. 11.  At the same time, seen from the human standpoint, faith is also the human response to God's gift of love and salvation. This gift of faith becomes a task, in responding and cooperating to God's gift of God's own life, a restored life. 12.  Thus, life becomes light, when concretized and translated into action. To the extent one accepts light, and allows it to work on him, to that extent life becomes vibrant and fully active. Therefore, a person of faith who receives Jesus and the life of God must constantly live in light dispelling all the shades of darkness. 13.  In simple details, this living in the light implies: being illuminated,  being clear-sighted and focused, being guided and charged to walk in God's ways, and do good works that shine and show God's own light. 14.  If this is the whole spectrum of love, mercy, faith, life and light, then some basic and vital questions and challenges remain always. How much we are conscious of God's ceaseless love for us? 15.  How much we are profoundly grateful to His mercy that forgives and dignifies us. How do we value, appreciate and live the gift of faith? Do we constantly realize faith as an experience of God's merciful love and offer of life, and not merely as the belief in certain doctrines and truths? 16.  How do I live my new life of faith in a renewed life of light? Am I a faithful person, living the life of God in light and enlightenment,  Or am I a mediocre believer walking in darkness, suffocating God's life?   Imperative: Freedom is something great and beautiful. But it is also risky because it makes us accountable to live a life of faith and to walk a way of light.   (Reflection 2) Indicative: God always offers us His grace. He shows us His love in manifold ways. It is left to us to make a free choice between grace or sin, salvation or damnation   1.           God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son for its salvation. He wants to save but sadly many prefer destruction. He wants to give light and enlighten our lives. But many still prefer darkness. 2.           God who loved the world and sacrificed His only Son, gives the gift of faith, salvation and eternal life. This gift from God calls for a choice. This is the choice to be made: Accept the new life in faith, come to light, dispel the shades of darkness, be enlightened, and do the works of light. 3.           So let us not blame God that He judges and condemns us mercilessly. Because He is merciful only, He sacrificed His own Son as our ransom for our salvation. It is actually an auto-judgment. It is we who condemn ourselves by our rejection of His life, light and truth. 4.            Today there is so much hatred and selfishness. God’s sacrificing love must be a lesson and challenge for us. We must confide in such love of God and imbibe the same spirit. We must heal the world with the cool streams of love and altruism. In a world that continues to stumble in the ways of darkness, we must be the bearers of the light of Christ. 5.           Further, against a prevalent storm of judging and condemning, we must spread the gentle breezes of empathy and forgiveness. Our purpose shall not be to show and prove how bad a fellow is. Rather it is to recognise and reinstate the confidence in how good a person can be, for Jesus came not to condemn but to save. 6.           Still further, we must inherit the same spirit of courage and commitment of the apostles. Nothing could intimidate them or stop them. They were focused and determined. They were convinced and committed. 7.           In a world that is fragmented and tormented by a culture of hate, darkness, and destruction, we need to revitalise the power of love, light, and new life of the Lord   Imperative: Be open and receive His life in faith. Allow Him to enlighten you with His light. And see the truth and walk the way of truth in authenticity and integrity