Fourth (Laetare) Sunday of Lent, Year B
Lesson: 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
Epistle: Eph 2:4-10
Gospel: Jn 3:14-21
“Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt (1630)
The Fourth Sunday of Lent, known traditionally as Laetare Sunday, derives its name from the Introit (Entrance Antiphon) of the Mass, which lamentably is almost universally replaced with a hymn of some sort or another. The introit is drawn from Isaiah 66:10-11 and Psalm 122, and reads in Latin:
Laetare Ierusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolatinis vestrae. Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.
In English, this is rendered
Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast. I rejoiced when they said to me: let us go into the house of the Lord.
Coming in the middle of Lent, Laetare Sunday is characterized by a joyful sobriety: rose replaces the penitential violet, and the reading emphasize the joy of our redemption from sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.
That said, the readings of Year B do not shy away from the destructive reality of the effects of sin on our lives, or the often unsettling reality that no one, however favored by God with gifts of nature and grace, is exempt from the potential to lose the favor and salvation offered by God to His Church.
This Sunday’s first reading, from Second Chronicles, relates what befell Jerusalem and God’s chosen people when they refused to repent of their idoltaries and injustices.
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD’s temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled.”
Sin has genuine, terrible consequences, especially when the sin is habitual and unrepentant for an extended period of time. The knowledge of our election by grace of baptism can often bring with it the temptation of presumption. To the people of ancient Israel, it was inconceivable that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, because it was God’s chosen city and His own house, and (as they understood things) He had promised that these would endure for all generations. So, presuming that they understood God’s will and how He intended to fulfill His promises, they persisted in their outrages against Him, little knowing that God is always faithful to His promises, but that His faithfulness often takes a form that we could never anticipate.
As Christians, we are not immune to this same tendency to downplay our own transgressions and imagine that the consequences of our sins will be no more severe than a few more Hail Marys at Confession or a little more time in Purgatory. The concupiscence that lives in all of us is a powerful foe. Our Lord warns against this pernicious tendency toward sin in the Gospel reading of today.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to 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 to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
Why, then, is this cause for rejoicing? Because it is the will of God that we should not be left in misery and slavery to sin, but that we should be liberated and healed, if we allow ourselves to be. Just as with the idolatries of Jerusalem, God intends that the consequences of our own transgressions should be satisfied in full so that a complete liberation may occur. This is testified to in the final portion of the reading from Second Chronicles.
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!”
For the world today, this satisfaction for sin has been carried out in the person and the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“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 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 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 Son of God.
Lent is a powerful season in which we are given the opportunity to place ourselves within the healing mercy of God. The Church places before us this privileged season in which we can become cooperators with God’s gracious work of healing and reparation for the sins and failing in our lives. By prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we invite the salvific power of the Cross into our lives and allow Jesus to lead us out of slavery to sin. In place of the harsh medicine that fell as a shock upon the people of Jerusalem, who as a consequence of unrepentant sin saw their whole world come crashing down in flame, ruin, and exile, we are offered the gentle yoke of Jesus, by which we may be saved from death in sin and raised to new life once again. “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.”