Fourth Sunday of
Lent (B) [Jn 3:14-21]
10.03.2024
The
Lifting Up of the Son of Man and God’s Boundless Love
1.
Theme in brief
Forgiving and healing power of the cross
2.
Focus Statement
A loving gaze at the crucified image of Christ on
the cross with the eyes of faith can reveal to us the infinite love of God
flowing from it and can lead us to repentance and to get a healing remedy for
the poison of sin.
3. Explanation of the text
According to today’s gospel, in his dialogue with a
leading Pharisee named Nicodemus (Jn 3:1), Jesus discloses the mystery of his “being
lifted up”
from the earth (3:14). In John’s gospel this phrase (repeated in 8:28; 12:32; 12:34) refers to
his (1) being lifted up on the Cross, and also (2) being lifted up to the right
hand of the Father through his resurrection and ascension or exaltation. By
using an analogy, Jesus compares it with Moses’ lifting up of the bronze
serpent on a pole in the desert (3:14). When the people of
Actually, it was not the image of that snake lifted on a pole that saved
Israelites from death – as if it had magical or superstitious powers – but, as
the OT itself explains, their faith in a saving God (cf. Wisdom 16:7). In other words, the image of snake
was only a visible reminder or an external sign of a saving God who invited them to have faith
in him and repent for their sins. In a similar manner, whoever
looks at the uplifted (i.e. crucified and exalted) Christ in faith and a
repentant heart is healed from the poison of sin.
After speaking about the healing power of the cross,
Jesus tells Nicodemus about the saving and life-giving power of the cross.
Cross of Christ is the ultimate proof of God’s
intense, pure, selfless and universal
love
for a world broken and
damaged due to sin or evil. In the most often and widely quoted verse in
today’s gospel, he tells Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may
have eternal life (3:16).”
Here the word “so” loved refers to the intensity of God’s love. The word
“world” is used by John in various senses; in this context it means all the
people of the world. “Giving” implies both giving of a gift and giving up or sacrificing
somebody. God’s love for all humans was so
intense
that he gave his Son not only as a supreme gift to them
but also as a sacrificial offering on the
cross. Thus, this oft-quoted verse points out clearly that the basic nature of
love is self-giving. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross
was an act of total self-giving and life-giving love.
The purpose or motive behind God’s seemingly ‘irrational’
love is (1) to share (communicate)
his divine life
(eternal life) with humans (3:16), so that (2) they may be saved by partaking his divine life (3:17). Thus,
Jesus makes it clear that God’s intention of giving and sending his Son into
the world was twofold: (1) not to allow anybody to perish eternally but have divine life through his
Son (3:16), and (2) not to condemn anybody but save all those who believe in his
Son (3:17). Though God loves everyone, in order to make his love effective, the receivers must fulfil two conditions: (1) They must believe in his Son (3:15,16). ‘To
believe’ in John’s gospel does not mean intellectual assent given to the truths
of faith, but a decision to entrust oneself to Christ or to put one’s trust in him or to be personally attached to him by faith. (2) They must
accept God’s offer of salvation freely. Their actions determine their own
salvation and condemnation (3:17-18). By their evil deeds done in darkness and by refusing to be exposed to Christ’s light, human
beings condemn themselves (3:19-21). This happens when they obstinately reject
God or his offer of love/salvation. Therefore, in this context, John’s gospel
uses the word ‘world’ in another sense to mean an unbelieving world – a symbol for
those who stubbornly refuse to come to the Light (= Christ) or hate the Light
(3:20).
To sum up, John’s reflection on the mystery
of the cross teaches us about: (1) God’s initiative
in saving us by sharing
his eternal life with us through the cross and
resurrection-exaltation of Christ; and (2) the motive behind
such an action being his pure, intense and universal love (because it is given to everyone – Jews and Gentiles, saints and sinners).
4.
Application to
life
Lent is the most favourable time to reflect on the boundlessness of God’s love
showered on sinners like us not only by giving his Son to the world but also by
allowing him to give
up or sacrifice his life on the cross to redeem the world. It is a time
to go back in our memory lane to look at our past history and discover God’s infinite
love and mercy
shown to us in spite of our infidelity. A deeper reflection on our past as well
as our present can teach us one thing: What a contrast between God's boundless goodness
or
faithfulness and our own sinfulness or unfaithfulness! Lest we get
discouraged, the Church invites us through today’s gospel to fix our gaze
at the icon of the crucified and exalted image of
Christ on the cross not
only with our physical eyes but also with our inner eyes (eyes of faith) and
see the infinite love, mercy and healing power flowing from it. This reflection
could move us towards repentance for our sins, begging for God’s
forgiveness and an experience of inner healing from the poison of sin.
Jesus did not die any kind of death but death on a cross – a capital punishment given by the Roman government to convicted criminals in those days. The cross – considered as an object of curse and disgrace in Jesus’ time – speaks to us about a God who loves us so intensely that he does not mind permitting his Son to suffer this kind of death. The cross is the climax of Christ’s love for sinners and proof of the Father’s love for the broken world. In the season of Lent, when we meditate on the mystery of the cross, a thought should crop up in our minds: Look at the extent God went to save us and make us sharers of his own life! If ever God wanted to save us through the death of his Son, was there no better way of dying, a more honourable death? Why a criminal’s death on the instrument of curse and shame?
When we fix our gaze on
the “uplifted” Christ on the cross, in the silence of our hearts we hear an agonizing
voice coming from his tortured body: “Is there any greater love than this…?” (cf. Jn 15:13). We can also imagine another voice crying
out with his outstretched arms: “My people, what have I done to you? How have I
offended you? Answer me” (cf. Good Friday’s liturgy). Further, we can imagine him
saying: “What more could I have done for you?” How do we respond to this cry? As
St. Ignatius of Loyola taught, we need to ask ourselves before the crucified
image: (1) What have I done for Christ? (2) What am I doing for Christ? (3)
What ought I to do for Christ? If he has done so much for us, what have I done with
my life, to one another and to human society? If the sin of the world has
caused so much suffering to God’s Son, what are we doing to defeat evil in
ourselves and in the world?
Sin and its consequences continue to bite us like snakes of the desert during the journey of Israelites. We need to become more and more conscious of how this poison spreads all over the society, contributing to its brokenness. We sometimes sting or bite one another with our harsh (violent) words used in quarrels and fights. By spreading unsubstantiated rumours and engaging in gossip against people in their absence we poison hope of social integration. The fewer children we have in our families today, the more selfish and greedy they become, since they don’t have other brothers and sisters to share what they have. The more time we save due to modern electronic gadgets and motor vehicles, the less time we have for people or for human relationships. Our society’s ‘worship’ of secular values such as power, status, success and achievement at the cost of others poisons genuine love. If not on our guard, the process of secularization becomes a poison or virus that comes from outside and infects our hearts from within killing genuine love-relationships and all the age-old family and community values. Exaggerated individualism leads to disinterest in building up communities and fraternity. Instead of imitating the universality of God’s love, we limit our love to exclusive relationships and narrow-minded attitudes. Instead of coming to the light, we hate it and run away from it to ensure that our evil deeds, selfishness and greed are not exposed (3:20).
Faith in the healing power of Christ flowing from his cross is a wonderful remedy for the poison of sin. The forgiving and healing power of the cross can be experienced by us by following these steps: (1) by deeply reflecting on God’s immeasurable and boundless love as well as compassion poured on us to the extent of permitting his Son to die a criminal’s death on the cross; (2) by entrusting ourselves into his hands in an act of total faith-surrender; (3) by repenting for the times we allowed the poison of sin or evil to infect our hearts and became unfaithful to God or to our call; (4) by repeatedly asking the Lord to purify and heal us from this deadly poison with his precious blood; and (5) by placing an unwavering hope in Christ’s words that anyone who believes in him will not be condemned but saved. Jesus invites us from the cross either to embrace it or to reject it. It is up to us to accept or refuse his invitation? We embrace the cross when we experience the pain of giving up our selfish, sinful and ungodly ways, or when we make sacrifices and self-denial for our own and the world’s salvation. By obstinately (stubbornly) refusing to accept the cross, we refuse God’s love, and condemn ourselves. Thus we create or choose a hell for ourselves.
When some people observe rampant corruption, violence, crime, rape, terrorism, wars, riots and injustice and other ills of the modern world, they say that it has gone to the dogs. They wonder whether God loves such a world (3:16)! Today’s gospel tells us emphatically that God not only loves this gone-to-the-dogs world but also proves his love for such a broken world by permitting his Son to die a criminal’s death on the cross. He does not want to condemn the unbelieving and sinful world but wants to save it; he does not want that anyone should perish but wants that all should live eternally. As God’s children, instead of condemning the world for all its ills, it is our duty to cooperate with God to save it. Imitating God’s own nature, the best penance we can do in this Lent is not to condemn or judge anybody (especially those whom we think are ‘wicked’), but try to save or help as many as possible by our service, sacrifice, prayer, guidance, support, consolation, etc.
5.
Response to God's Word
Do we allow secular values such as power, status, success and achievement to poison genuine
love among us? How do selfishness, greed and a dwindling sense of sharing among
us poison loving relationships in family/ society/ community? Do we contribute
to the fragmentation of our society by our individualism and apathy towards
community building? Do we poison the hope of social integration by spreading
baseless rumours? Does the boundless love of Christ flowing from his cross create
a sense of repentance and remorse in us for our sins? Do we embrace
the cross of Christ by making sacrifices and self-denial for our own and the
world’s salvation, or refuse it? What are we doing to save or reform the world and
promote a civilization of life in it, instead of only condemning others or gossiping
about ‘bad’ people?
6.
A prayer
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world. We thank you for the healing, saving, life-giving power of your holy cross. Grant that we may be able to come closer to your light in this Lent so that our sins of omission and commission may become exposed. By fixing our eyes on your crucified image, we pray that the power of infinite love and mercy flowing from your cross may cleanse and heal us. Amen.
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