4th Sunday of Lent, Year B by Rev. Fr. Lucas Binnah Junior

Read: 1st Reading: II Chronicles 36:14-16.19-23 / Responsorial Ps.: Psalm 137:1-2.3.4-5.6 (R.cf. 6ab) 2nd Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10 / Gospel Acclamation: John 3:16 / Gospel: John 3:14-21

Theme: The God of Mercy Is Also A God of Justice

We are already more than half way through this season of Lent, and through the distinctive rose vestments used today, we mark the occasion of Laetare Sunday which is a slight departure from the usually more sombre atmosphere of the rest of the Lenten season. Just as Gaudete Sunday marks a joyful aspect of Advent in preparation for the nativity of our Lord, so also this Laetare Sunday celebrates the joyful aspect of our preparation for Easter. Laetare simply means “rejoice” in Latin, and it is taken from the entrance antiphon (Introit) of today’s Mass which reads: Laetare Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam, gaudete cum Laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis (Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast). Therefore, today’s celebration reminds us that while we do penance for all our sins, we should also have the joyful hope of the Lord’s mercy and justice.

In mathematics, physics and chemistry, equations and inequalities must be balanced if a solution or an answer is to be found. In the field of financial accounting, income must be balanced with expenditure, and cost-benefit analysis done in order for one to ascertain whether they are or will be making profits or losses. There seems to be an imbalance in our understanding of the character of God. We are very quick to emphasise the fact that God is merciful. Rightly so, God is indeed merciful! Nevertheless, we should also be conscious that the God we serve is also a judge, and if he were to mark our individual and collective guilt, no one would survive (cf. Ps. 130:3). While mercy is simply a compassionate disposition towards others, justice is giving each one their due. In fact, we recite or chant the Credo every Sunday and days of solemnity. Towards the end of the Creed, we say of Christ: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.” God judges between good and evil, saint and sinner, wise and foolish, the faithful and faithless, and ‘sheep and goats’ (cf. Mt. 25: 1-46). It is from this angle that reward and punishment, heaven and hell, eternal life and eternal damnation can be placed. Emphasising God’s mercy without a commensurate understanding of his judgments is dangerous. Today’s readings afford us ample opportunity to see this dual nature of God, as well as the extent to which human freedom can go. To choose a life that leads to eternal bliss is our responsibility.

In the light of the aforesaid, the first reading recounts how the Israelites were sent into exile in Babylon for about seventy (70) long years (cf. Jer. 29:10) because of their repeated infidelity to God. The Jews copied abominable practices from neighbouring nations and desecrated the house of God in Jerusalem (cf. II Chron. 36:14). Exile was the consequence of their unfaithfulness not due to God’s powerlessness. The Psalmist highlights the excruciating, dehumanising, torturous, and bitter exilic experiences in Babylon which made the Jews harbour nostalgic feelings for their homeland, Israel. Hence, in recounting their sufferings, they mournfully sang the famous song: By the Rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137). The contrite cries of our own hearts can also reach God through sincere prayers. In fact, according to Tertullian, “it is prayer alone that conquers God.”

In balancing God’s mercy with his justice, St. Paul encourages the Christians in Ephesus to return to God who is ever-merciful. They are to do so through faith and repentance. Thus, the second reading teaches that God’s gratuitous gift of mercy comes to us through the sacrifice of Jesus. This is grace, and so Paul says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God …” (Eph. 2:8). Therefore, those, who in view of God’s judgment make genuine amendments to their lives, receive God’s mercy and are saved by grace.

In this regard, St. John the evangelist, through the intimate conversation that ensued between Jesus and Nicodemus, brings the loving mercy and justice of God at par and emphasises the necessity and urgency which must characterise humanity’s response to the invitation of God. In this Gospel, we read: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). He adds: “He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:18-19). Thus, the mercy of God lies in the fact that, he did not spare his only-begotten Son, Jesus, but gave him up as expiation for our sins. However, if we fail to give God, others and the self their due by persisting in sin and evil, we condemn ourselves.

Beloved in Christ, let us not take both the mercy and justice of God for granted. God is merciful to the extent that we repent and begin to live a life of faith and grace. Justice demands we do the right thing. His mercy does not mean we should continue to live in sin believing that we will be forgiven. Anytime we think of God’s mercy, we should also remember that he is the ultimate judge. Any moment we are captivated by God’s compassion, we should also acknowledge that God has the capacity for wrath! In our modern world, we live as if there is no judgment, no death, no future, no afterlife, no God, no heaven, and no hell. We are tempted to believe that everything ends here on earth. This is the deceit which lies in a world bent on destroying itself via atheism, secularism, materialism and anthropocentrism. It is a situation where the human person is put in the place of God and allowed to become both the lawgiver and the arbiter of their own destiny. If God is merciful and just to us, then, justice demands we too be merciful and just to one another.

Again, justice demands that we repent sincerely, so we may have hope of restoration as the first reading tells us. God raised King Cyrus of Persia who conquered Babylon to redeem his people, Israel. Cyrus declared: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.” (II Chron. 36: 23). The problem may not so much be how and where we have fallen, but how we can rise up from where we have fallen. The Prodigal Son gives us an example (cf. Lk. 15:11-32). In faith and through penance, let us return to God praying, fasting and giving alms. These will restore us fully. In his Sermon 43, St. Peter Chrysologus admonishes us never to cut these three spiritual exercises apart since they are inseparable: “What prayer knocks for upon a door, fasting successfully begs and mercy [alms-giving] receives: these three are a unit. They give life to one another. For fasting is the soul of prayer; and mercy is the life of fasting…Let them be a threefold prayer for us…Fasting does not germinate unless watered by mercy. When mercy dries up, fasting suffers drought, for mercy is to fasting what rain is to the earth.”

For those of us who have become despondent because of our weaknesses and repeated failures, let us remember always that our present situation is not our final destination. The best is yet to come when we live with and in Jesus. Difficulties in life do not come to destroy but to help us realise our hidden potentials and powers. Every pain gives a lesson and every lesson changes a person. In the midst of the difficulties, let us never stop learning, for life never stops teaching. We never walk alone, for the Holy Spirit comes to our assistance (cf. Rom. 8:26). We can make it knowing God is with us. Perhaps, we can reflect on this famous traditional Catholic Lenten hymn composed by Fr. Edmund Vaughan, CSsR (1827-1908): God of mercy and compassion, look with pity upon me… May this Sunday enable us to entertain the joyful hope of salvation which repentance brings. May God bless our intentions as we make a come-back to him this Lenten season, and may he also favour us! Remember:

#The-God-of-Mercy-Is-Also-a-God-of-Justice

By Rev. Fr. Lucas Binnah Junior, C.S.Sp.

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