Laetare = Rejoice!

This Fourth Sunday of Lent is also called Laetare or Rejoice Sunday.

Are we rejoicing because Lent is half way finished? Because, in a mere three weeks, I can eat chocolate again? Because, at Easter I can stop feeding my Rice Bowl for every word of foul language I use again? Because, why?

Both, today's sections of Paul's letter to the Ephesians and from the Gospel of John we have great reason to rejoice. Here is what they say:

"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 no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10.)

"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." (John 3:16.)

On this weekend we are shown, in the words of Jesus and St. Paul, God's design for us and all of humanity. God's plan is that we all be saved from eternal death by the gift of His Son's life. The reason that Jesus was born, the reason that He lived, taught and healed, the reason that He endured death by the Cross, the reason He was resurrected was all for our benefit. He lived and He lives so that we may have abundant life now and eternally because of Him.

Lent is our time try to grasp how much God is offering us by our prayer, fasting and works of charity. In our prayerful relationship with God we become intimately aware how much God dearly loves us. By our fasting and denying ourselves stuff, we hopefully learn that only the stuff that God gives us is worth craving for (even White Castle!). It is also the only stuff that is worth living and dying for. Finally, we do deeds of generosity and service to imitate God's all-giving ways. We do none of these activities to EARN God's saving gifts. We do them to get in touch with how generous God must be to give to us so freely. By our mere knowing that we need them, God's gifts of Mercy, Love, and Abundant Eternal Life our ours. Our Lenten practices (and even our failure in our Lenten practices) help us to be aware of how much we need God for all things in life and for Life itself.

We can REJOICE (or LAETARE if you really need to be Latin) because our God loves us enough  to want for us a better life now and a completely blissful life in eternity. I encourage you to meditate or contemplate about what part of that gift from God are you missing from your life. Where is it that you need God's saving graces?

peace,
Fr. Chuck

PS. I have a favor to ask. I have some friends who lost their twenty-four year old son this past week. Please lift them up to God in prayer. Embrace them, their daughter and their son's fiance in God's tender love. I ask for your prayers as well for twenty-five of us who will be leaving UofL on Sunday morning for a week of mission to the Habitat for Humanity Camp in Birmingham, Alabama. Pray for those who are making this service mission and for those whom we'll meet and serve. Thanks! cdw