God's Love & Light Dispel the Darkness

Homily: Sunday, 4th Week in Lent -- March 18, 2012
1^st Reading: 2 Chron. 36: 14-16, 19-23 – Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers send messengers to them.
2^nd Reading: Ephesians 2: 4-10 – God who is rich in mercy because of the great love He has for us.
Gospel Reading: John 3: 14-21 – For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son so that all who believe might not perish but might have eternal life.
 
  Love – Light – Life    or   Darkness – Deception – Dispair – Death

Today is Laetare Sunday.  We are a just a little more than half way through our journey in Lent and it’s time to take a break from all of the work we hopefully have been doing to prepare ourselves for Holy Week and the celebration of Easter.   Now all of you chocoholics that have given up Hershey bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups for Lent, this doesn’t mean you can eat yourself into a chocolate coma.  The word Laetare means joyful and today we are reminded that even though what we are about to celebrate in a couple of weeks will require us to confront the sadness, horror, and feelings of despair, as we follow our Lord through His passion, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Why? (Show John 3:16 Poster.)   This may well be the most popular Scripture verse in the world, or at least in our country.   There was a time when you couldn’t go to a sporting event or a concert, without seeing at least one person holding up poster like this.  And wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the stadium or arena took these words to heart, but in all honesty we have to ask ourselves do they or we really understand the depth of what these words mean.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that we might not perish, but that we might have eternal life”  How can we even begin to understand what this means?  How can we know that God loves us?  How can I know that God loves me?  How can anyone know especially when we live in a world filled with so much darkness some of our own making, but also darkness thrust upon us through no fault of our own?  Well in order to know we are loved, we must first come to know the Lover.  And second, being able to hold on to this feeling, this belief that we are loved will depend on what we do in the darkness.

Today’s readings remind us that even when God calls out to his people, then and now and sends messengers then and now to light the path for us, there have been and still are times when His people turn away from him, and choose the darkness.  And sometimes when people have fallen into darkness whether by their choice or not, they can get lost, and stumble around, and can’t seem to find their way out, unless they turn back to or are brought back to God.  It may be that God will use another person to help guide us out of the darkness or call us to bring someone else out of darkness.  

The 1^st reading is a mini-history of the Israelites people.  It reminds them of how their choices to turn from God, and toward temptations, evil allurements, selfish acts, and worshiping false idols resulted in their being dragged off into captivity as slaves.  Then in their darkest moments they cried out to God to save them, and after enough of them had repented God moves the heart of a Persian king Cyrus who grants them their freedom and allows them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, they and their ancestors had desecrated by their sinful acts years before.  So God shows His love for them and He uses a pagan King to lead them out of darkness.  Now it was up to them to get reacquainted with the God who loves them, and not end up falling into darkness again.  But as we know God’s people all of us continue to backslide, and to fall into darkness and in this darkness we forget or find it hard to see or feel God’s love for us.  It is especially during these times that we need to return to the words of today’s Gospel.  It is in these words that we come to know the lover.    How can we know we are loved?  How can we know it’s going to be okay?   Because the Son of God was lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. 

We are being told today to pick up our heads and look up at the crucifix, to meditate on it, and reflect on what it means.   For God so loved the world, you, me, everyone that he gave his only begotten Son that we might not perish, but that we might have life.  Look at the cross and see the extremes to which the darkness has taken hold of us.  Meditate on the extremes to which God would go to save us, and to bring us back into His light.  It is in the crucified Son that we come to know how much Father God loves us.   So coming to know the lover is how we come to know we are loved.  But knowing we are loved by God does not guarantee we will not fall into darkness.   In fact we are reminded that even when there is light, even when Jesus came, the gospel tells us that the people preferred the darkness to the light.   Think about when you wake up in the dark, and someone turn’s on a light.   It hurts your eyes and you say “turn it off.”   Well the nature of evil and sin is that it seeks to keep the one it has captured in the dark, because evil itself can not stand the light.   It is evil that seeks to deceive us into believing that the light is not good for us, that we are safe in the darkness.  And there is a lot of darkness in the world today.  And what has been its effect?   

As a society we haven’t just taken God who is the perfect light and put him under a bushel basket, we have locked him away in a closet and said He has no place in our public lives.    And without His light to guide us, the darkness of selfishness, greed, impurity, and worship of all sorts of idols and gods continues to spread throughout our world.   In this darkness we see many who have made the choice that they don’t need God.  Also in this darkness we find those who in some cases through no fault of their own must endure severe physical, emotional, and spiritual pain every day.   Most of us know people who suffer physical pain so great and prolonged that it would be understandable if they found it difficult to feel God’s love for them.   There are those who can not find their way out of the darkness of addiction to drugs, alcohol, porn, and power.   How are they to believe God that loves them?   There are those whose darkness comes from being a victim of all manner of abuse and whose scars are so deep and so numerous, that their pain keeps them in darkness.  How are they to find God’s love in all of this?  It may require someone else, like you or me to help them find their way back to the foot of the Cross.  God may require you or me to be the messenger who carries His love letter to the person in darkness.  We may have to be the ones who say the words, God loves you so much that He gave his only Son to suffer with you and for you so that one day you can be relieved of your pain.   It may be you or I who are called to convince a person, trapped in their addiction, their pain, their darkness, that they don’t have to remain there, that you or I will help them find their way out.  We may have to become the light of Christ to those who have despaired of ever finding their way out of their darkness.  

So today we have taken a break in our Lenten journey to hear some Good News.   We have heard just how much God loves us.  So much so that He would give over to suffering and death that which is most precious to Him, so that in what ever we are called to suffer or endure, we will know that He suffers along with us.   We are reminded today that the darkness we choose, or the darkness that is thrust upon us will not last forever.  But because darkness hates the light, it will not give up without a fight.   We must first choose and then to work at bringing ourselves and then others out of the darkness and into that perfect light which is God’s love.   It doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes repentance, transforming ourselves, changing our lives, making better choices, and answering the call to help others so that we can all find our way out of the darkness.  And as our eyes slowly adjust, we have the hope that one day we will be able to stand in the fullness of God’s light without hurting our eyes.

But it all begins with the Cross and the one who hung upon it.   We must make it our constant practice to look upon the Crucifix, and the crucified Jesus and appreciate what He freely went through for us.   Only in this way can we enter into the celebration of Easter with joy and a grateful heart for all that God has done for us.