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11 mar 2018
11/03/2018 – 4th Sunday of Lent - B 

11/03/2018 – 4th Sunday of Lent - B 

Reading 1, Second Chronicles 36,14-16.19-23 * Psalm 136 * Reading 2, Ephesians 2,4-10 * Gospel, John 3,14-21

 

The first reading gives interpretation to one of the most painful events that had befallen the people of God, the destruction of the Holy City and the deportation of the people to Babylon, where it became slave of its enemies. Why all of this has been possible? Why God has not protected Israel? The prophets had predicted it, but they were despised and made fun of. They had tried to "continuously sent them word" to the people, that had let itself to indulge in imitating the pagan and magical practices of the other peoples. We think that we can read in this page the history of our world: the family disasters, the sons' rebellions, the parents' insecurities and weaknesses, resorting to pagan religions and magical practices, abandoning yourselves to drugs or other ersatz, easily resorting to adultery, divorce and abortion, justifying all possible sexual perversions, living forgetful of Jesus, are not all those serious sins? And will not they have as a consequence some sort of terrible “punishment”?

However, the so called “punishments” of God are never definitive. If God punishes, he does it in order to get repentance, in order to obtain a recovery of the faithfulness of the people, which he follows and loves tenderly. God cares for His people: if He punishes it, he does it in order for it to realize that it is walking down the wrong path, leading it to ruin, and for it to get back down the path of life. Behold, after seventy years He summons a new king, the Persian Cyrus, in order to give to the exiled Jews the freedom to go back to their land, to gather again as people of God and rebuild the temple!

Sin and mercy, judgment and salvation, these are also the topics of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. The Master remembers an event that is told in the Exodus, an event that helps understand the plans of God involving His life. In a particular moment of the travelling through the desert, the people had been infested by poisonous snakes. It recognized in this event a «punishment of God’s» due to its own grumbling and rebellions against Him. To the prayer of intercession that Moses has uttered, God replied inviting him to lift a copper snake on a pole: whoever had been looking at it with faith, notwithstanding the fact that they had been bitten by a poisonous snake, they would have been safe. In this way, each one of them would have had his salvation in his own hands: the latter would not have come automatically, but just right after an act of obedience, an easy obedience.

Now we need to recognize that men are bitten by the old snake all the time, which is luring them to sin, to distance themselves from God, to live in the darkness in order for their wicked works not to be seen. But behold the love of God for the world: there will still be high up a source of salvation! The Son of Man, only begotten Son of God, will be lifted up “so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”! God wants salvation for men, who in any other case would be doomed. Anybody can receive salvation, if he believed in Jesus lifted on the cross.

God’s proposal is easy to accept and live. However, it finds a lot of obstacles that would be able to stop even the most eager from being saved. It is necessary then that everyone makes us his mind standing in front of the cross, under the bright look of the Father, free from the influence of the others. The catechumens are preparing in order to make this decision, and the baptized ones are renewing the same decision. They know that they will not get any support from the world, that is why in these days they are getting used to live in contemplation of the love of God, of the sacrifice of Jesus, of the prize that has already been promised to whoever believes.

In writing to the Ephesians, Saint Paul helps us to remember of and contemplate the Father’s merciful love! He saves us through Jesus, and salvation reaches us the very moment in which we believe in the Son. What does to believe in Jesus mean? Just to keep in mind the news about the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior? To believe implies to shape the life according to this certainty! If I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, I will apply His word to my personal, family and social situations, even if this means to change some behaviors of mine. I believe that Jesus is the savior, and not that I save myself through my goodness, of which I decide the behavior by myself! The good deeds are already set by God, Saint Paul is telling us. We obey Him joyfully! To believe is to obey! The word obedience is instinctively rejected by men, that are afraid they will end up used. The obedience coming from faith goes to that God who loves us and only knows how to love us! It is in our own interest to obey Him! When we obey Him we can live in the light, without being ashamed of anything, because the works done while obeying God are truth and they bring good things to everyone!