FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT - MARCH 10, 2024

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

On the Fourth Sunday of every Lent, the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday, recognizable as one of only two days on which priests will wear rose-colored vestments. The other day, Gaudete Sunday in Advent, is also about three-quarters through a penitential season; the purpose of these days in the middle of penitential seasons is to remind us of two things: first, we are approaching the end of the season, so we must either persevere in our penitential offerings or turn back to a penitential nature if we have fallen away. Second, and more importantly, laetare and gaudete in Latin means “rejoice”. In the midst of spiritually atoning for our sins, we are reminded of the joy that is ultimately at the heart of our relationship with God. We are not meant to live every day of our lives mourning our wickedness, but instead living in the joy of God’s mercy once we turn away from sin.

READ THIS SUNDAY'S MESSAGE

On this Laetare Sunday, we are reminded of two truths about the joy of our salvation that is closely approaching as we celebrate Easter. The first is that God’s mercy is intrinsically tied to his compassion for us in our sin. The second is that God stepped in to provide us the salvation we so desperately needed for no other reason than His love for us and for the desire that we may rejoice in Him. Both of these truths are revealed in the readings for this Sunday. In the first reading, God’s chosen people have fallen so desperately into sin that they are actively desecrating the Temple in Jerusalem, which is meant to be God’s house on earth. God’s reaction is not immediate anger or punishment; instead, we are told that he sent messenger after messenger to warn these people because of his compassion. When we fall into sin, we begin to stray further away from God, and subsequently further away from understanding and knowing the harm that we are doing to ourselves. This doesn’t make God angry, it breaks His heart. Based on the reception that His messengers received, it became clear to God and to us that we are helpless on our own in pursuing salvation. Just as it is with anyone who is attempting to overcome an attachment or addiction to sin, the first step is to purge all opportunities to sin. The people of Judah were overtaken by the Babylonians, stripped of their land and their Temple, and completely unable to practice the debauchery that arose within an environment of lethargy.

The people of God underwent this purging multiple times in their history until the time of Christ. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear perhaps the most famous passage in all of Scripture: “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.” God eventually sent Christ into the world not out of exasperation at our constant failures; He did it at the appointed time so that all may come to know who Christ is. More importantly, He did it simply out of love for us. As Paul tells us in his epistle on this Sunday, God brought us to life in Christ out of His rich mercy “because of the great love He has for us.” This is something worth celebrating. This is cause for rejoicing. This Sunday, we set aside the colors of penance and instead don the colors of warmth, life, love, and joy. And throughout the season of Lent, this is what we are called to do every Sunday: to remember the joy of Christ’s Resurrection, which we celebrate soon. In preparation for that immense and inexpressible joy, let’s work on purging the sin within our own lives so that we can come into Easter not with feelings of guilt or unworthiness, but with feelings of joy and celebration. This is how God wants us to approach this last quarter of Lent.