Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday

Homily for the 4^th Sunday of Lent – Laetare Sunday

Brothers & Sisters,

     Over the past three Sundays we have been discussing “Sin”.  We began by recognizing that sin comes when our understanding of who God is becomes distorted, and along with that our trust in Him.  We also recognized that the way we look at ourselves and one another becomes distorted as well.  This distortion comes from the voice of the tempter, Satan, the ancient serpent; it is frequently, daily, heard through the voice of contemporary culture.  We recognize through this the importance of quiet, for it is only in the quiet that we can hear the Voice of God.

     Next, we recognized that sin isn’t simply a matter of the law which is written down and meant to be followed according to the letter.  There are laws which have been passed down to us which point the way, however, it doesn’t stop there.  We saw how the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is our pattern for this deepening of the law given by Moses: we saw how it wasn’t so much the letter of the law as much as the motive, which is love – love of God and love of neighbor.  When we “miss the mark” in the many invitations to love which are presented to us each day, we have sinned.  We also recognized how these invitations to love are invitations given to us by God; and so we recognized that these invitations are manifestations of the Will of God.  Our task: to align our will with the Will of God.

     So, what of free will?  We were then presented with the difficult understanding that free will isn’t my ability to do whatever I wish but rather is a gift from God which gives me the freedom to choose to do God’s Will.  Not what contemporary society will accept, but what we must accept, indeed freely choose if are to know God’s salvation.

     On this 4^th Sunday of Lent, Holy Mother Church calls on us to Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and come together, all you who love her: rejoice with joy, you who have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Isaiah 66:10-11). 

     It is on this Sunday that we will focus on the Sacrament of Reconciliation / Confession.  Why would we do this on a Sunday in which the Church calls on us to rejoice?  The fact of that question says something about how distorted our notion of Reconciliation has become.  Reconciliation with the One Who has created and redeemed us has been twisted into something ugly, giving us cause to question the motives of God, or at least of His Church which then becomes something other than a loving and Holy Mother.

     And yet, as we read the antiphon above from Isaiah we see that we “who have been in sorrow” are the ones called upon to rejoice; and we rejoice because we have been “filled from the breasts of [our] consolation”.

     First of all, I think of that great song of joy sung at the Easter Vigil, the “Exultet”, in which we sing of Adam’s sin as a “happy fault which gave to us so great a Redeemer”.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Original Sin is recognized as the catalyst for salvation, because without that sin there would have been no need for a savior.

     We see then that it is because we have sorrowed that we can rejoice.  It is our sins which are the motive not for our shame but for our rejoicing – but rejoicing in what?  A clue is given us, indeed the reason for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and not some nebulous (no matter how heartfelt) going “directly to God”.  We see in this portion from Isaiah that we rejoice because we have been filled from the breasts of our Holy Mother – the Church; as another translation used in the Divine Office of this same passage makes even more clear, “Oh that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts” (Thursday, Morning Prayer, Week IV).

     We are given such comforting imagery which portends our Lord, Jesus Christ’s intent in giving to us the Sacrament of Confession.  So why should we be so frightened?  How is it that we are so easily taken in by the words of those who would cause us to question God’s motives; who would have us see His words of comfort twisted and distorted?

     The devil excels at exploiting any lack of humility, an excess of pride, which causes us to be focused on ourselves rather than on the One we were created to love.  Our eyes are not fixed on Him; they are not fixed on the salvation He offers, nor the Savior Whom He has sent to offer it.  No, our eyes are fixed on ourselves, or rather, they are fixed on the ugliness of sins that we too often try to twist (justify) into something “beautiful” (as if the ugliness of sin could ever be made beautiful) and then declare it superior to the true Beauty that has been distorted and called “ugly”, “too difficult”, even “impossible”, as if God would propose to us anything that He wasn’t already prepared to help us achieve.

     How then to return to that state in which we recognize the beauty of the reconciliation God offers us through our Holy Mother, the Church?  It begins with getting our eyes off ourselves; tearing our eye away from the ugliness of the sins we have committed.  It begins with getting ourselves out of the middle of our universe and freely allowing God to take His rightful place in the world He created.

     When we can do this, we will readily find that the Sacrament becomes a joy, we are comforted, we are filled and satisfied.  Have our sins changed?  Probably not.  But our view of the world, God’s world, has: what was distorted, twisted until it bore no resemblance to the reality God had created has been made whole again; what was wounded, even broken, has been healed.  What we are doing when we come to Confession, what the priest-confessor does, will not change; but our view of what is happening will have radically changed.  We won’t be focused on our sins, ourselves; we’ll be focused rather on God, our Father, Who is waiting to gather us up into His loving arms.  The glasses that distorted what God had made good will have been torn from our eyes and smashed, and we will see aright and see God: not as a “judge” but as the Lover He desires to be to and for each of us.

     Ask God to send the Holy Spirit into your heart.  Ask for the radical transformation of vision required.  Dare to see God as your truest and greatest love.  And then, come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

St. John Vianney, Pray for us!

St. Therese of Lisieux, Pray for us!

St. (Padre) Pio de Pietrelcina, Pray for us!