Rejoice! Your Salvation Is Near At Hand

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)
 
II Chron 36.+14-16, 19-23;
Eph 2-4-10;  
Jn 3.14-21

One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was located in Babylon (Modern day Iraq) which is the hanging garden in Babylon. Whereas for the Israelites, it was a miserable place of separation from their homeland. The Exile to Babylon gave rise to the responsorial psalm of today’s Mass; an inspirational psalm with its high sense of longing and craving for home:  “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, remembering Zion.”

 The writer of the second book of Chronicles, reflecting on the causes of this miserable Exile, criticized the Israelites for “adding infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that the Lord has consecrated for himself in Jerusalem.” At the time, the Israelites bemoaned their fate.

The sense of distance from God, of separation, of alienation has also been a theme of Christian spiritual reflection down the ages.  The Salve Regina, a well-known anthem to Our Lady, says, “To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.” Ultimately, all that happens contrary to God’s will is the result of sin, a turning away from God, an abandonment of his commands and precepts, and a rejection of his love and help.  
 Behind the experience of the People of Israel by the waters of Babylon and Christians in this vale of tears, lies the departure from God’s planned purpose of our first parents and the salvation wrought in Christ.

Looking at today’s gospel from the gospel according to Saint John.  Nicodemus, a secret follower of the Lord – a “closet disciple” in today’s jargon – is striving to understand the teachings of Jesus.  Our Lord uses the imagery of light and darkness.  Humanity lives in the darkness of sin, while God lives in unapproachable light.

 People prefer the darkness of sin and choose it.  Once again, our tendency towards sin is mentioned.  People will try to hide from the light of Christ to avoid being exposed to others or themselves, for when the light shines on us, our need to change and be saved is revealed and is uncomfortable, even painful.

On this mid-Lent Sunday, though, the traditional injunction in the Liturgy is Laetare, be glad.  Pink vestments and flowers are permitted as a sign of hope that the rigors of our penitence will bear fruit.  We look ahead to the Paschal Vigil and the phrase in the Exsultet which proclaims, “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us go great a Redeemer!”

Our Lord’s understanding of His mission is that He is here to beam the searing light of truth on the darkest and most unpleasant areas of our lives, exposing our wretchedness and sin. Yet, He does this only out of love and a desire to rescue us, to save us, to heal us, to illuminate us.  He also provides the guiding light to show us the way to the Father.

In all, let us see beyond the barricades we hide behind and remind ourselves that there is a power at work in the world much greater than anything which leads us to feel downcast, miserable, and alienated.  The power of Christ’s death and resurrection overcame sin in the first Triduum and it remains potent today.

 The solution to our human predicament lies not in our finite and feeble resources, but in the unsearchable depths of God.  There is no dark corner into which the light of Christ cannot reach.  So we pause for honest reflection, and rejoice that Christ, our Light, is near at hand.

Fr Joseph Osho