Die Hard: 4th Sunday of Lent

One thing I’ve begun to realize this Lent is that old habits die hard…and old bad habits die harder. 

This might be a good place to pick up with our first reading.  The people of Israel were in a terrible slump, having made decisions time and time again to betray their God and to forsake his ordinances, his way.  And there were serious repercussions.  Their land fell into the hands of their enemies and they were shuffled off into exile…their precious valuables were liquidated and their palaces burned with fire.  And yet God did not abandon them forever.  We see how, in King Cyrus, the Lord raised up a new beginning for Israel, starting with the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.  What was God doing?  He was building them from the ground up…starting fresh.  And he wants to do the same thing with us.  This Sunday is called Laetare Sunday, it means ‘to rejoice’.  It is this ‘rejoicing’ that gives us new impetus to follow the Lord despite our failures and setbacks, despite those bad habits that die hard.  The cry underlying our joy this Sunday is the willingness to begin anew, from the ground up – not letting past failures dissuade us from meaningful change. 

Think of the great example we have in Jesus Christ, he who came as the light yet the people preferred the darkness.  Yet rather than abandoning them to the darkness he stepped forward knowing that this would mean an encounter with the Cross, with suffering and with death.  Saint Paul points out to us that this death occurred ‘while we were yet sinners’.  Saint John Chrsysostom, a priest of Antioch of the fourth century, reflects that when Saint John wanted to show God’s love he did so not by referring to signs, wonders, or miracles.  He pointed to the cross, saying ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that all who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life.’  Chrysostom highlights Christ’s eagerness to encounter the Cross.  He recalls how Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from facing suffering and death, “Lord, let this never happen to you” – and that Jesus responded, “Get behind me Satan.”  Yet this openness to suffer is, at its root, not about suffering at all – it’s about love.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church points out that: 

God’s love for Israel is compared to a father’s love for his son.  His love for his people is stronger than a mother’s for her children.  God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.’

In the Gospel today we overhear a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus.  Nicodemus, a learned scholar, a man of the law and of rigorous religious training is nonetheless afraid to visit Jesus in public and instead arranges to see Jesus under the cover of night.  Perhaps Nicodemus, a leading Jew of the city, feared some backlash if he were to be seen associating with the controversial preacher from backwoods Nazareth.  Jesus challenges him to look beyond the immediate things of this world and to consider the larger context of things.   Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Son of God will be rejected by the people – foreshadowing the coming crucifixion.  How these words must have rung true for him on the day Jesus died on the Cross.  On that day, Nicodemus makes a stunningly public appearance, appearing before Pilate, the Roman governor, asking permission to take the body of Jesus off of the cross and to tend to its burial.  It seems to me that Nicodemus may have come to the same conclusion as the Roman guard standing beneath the cross: “Truly this was the Son of God.” 

In the cross we have the witness of the most scandalous and most extravagant proof of the Father’s love for us.  Christ makes present His Body and His Blood here on the altar.  We sign ourselves with his cross when we enter the Church and after we receive the final blessing.  May it not be an empty sign but a sign of our willingness to allow the Lord room in our hearts.  Room to rebuild from the ground up the mustard seed of faith that the devil so longs to snatch away from us.  May we see the value of our lives in the shadow of the Cross.  May we see in the extreme price Jesus paid to set us free an eloquent indication of the value of our repentance.

Bad habits die hard…but they still need to die.  With God’s help and with the assurance of His love let us seek to grow in our trust of God as we face our own crosses in life.  Let us take advantage of the remaining days of Lent to carry our cross with Christ, encompassed not with a sense of suffering –but of love – a love that conquers suffering and death.