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4th Sunday Of Lent B

Celebrating 100 years

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Cycle B

B208: All Christians "love the light" just by believing in Jesus, don't they? Is John's Gospel today (Jn 3:14-21) pointing in a direction other than towards me?

It depends on exactly what you believe and how you have informed your conscience. John points out that people who do "evil works" prefer darkness; people who do "wicked things" hate the light, and don't come near it or else they would be "exposed." The Roman Catholic Church has the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit until the end of time, to preserve it from error in faith and morals. Therefore we do not stand "in the light" if we do not follow the official teachings of the Magisterium, readily found in the New Catechism of the Catholic Church.

A few modern examples of "wicked things" or "evil works" will help illustrate this. The Church teaches that some actions are objectively evil by their very nature and choice, such as procured abortions, vasectomies, contraception and euthanasia. These are choices against life and are gravely disordered behaviors. Other actions are objectively evil because they are offenses against chastity and are gravely disordered behaviors - examples are prostitution, masturbation, homosexual acts, fornication, and lust. There are many other choices that are objectively evil, and to accept them as "okay to choose" will place one in dire spiritual danger. "Pro-choice" positions are inherently dangerous by definition, and not acceptable because they allow, tolerate and even encourage objectively evil behavior such as the examples given above. It is to our disgrace as a Nation and as its Citizens that apparently we cannot see that we are "living in darkness" and are even driving out all reference to God in our schools, institutions, and society. One national party even has a plank in its platform defending one's right to choose this behavior, which is unacceptable to a Roman Catholic.

Know Your Catechism! You can find the Church's teaching in many places (CCC#2271; 2277; 2351-70; etc). What about your behavior toward institutions that perpetuate these crimes: do you vote for those taking a stand against objectively evil behavior, or are you a passive onlooker? Such passivity puts you in the "darkness" rather than in the"light" of Jesus Christ! Do you need to do some Lenten soul-searching? Reflection: Do you think God hears prayers that ask for His protection of a society that encourages the wicked behavior above?

Salvation through faith ... God's gift

In the wars of religion that followed the Protestant Reformation, both Catholics and Protestants sometimes treated each other with a cruelty we would like to forget.

Especially cruel were a group of fanatical Calvinists who waged war upon the Catholics of Holland. They called themselves the "Ragamuffins." In 1572 these guerrillas rounded up nineteen Catholic priests and friars in the town of Gorkum, both because they despised their beliefs, and because they hoped they would confess where their church "treasures" were hidden. The captors made public mockery of their "hostages" and then put them "on trial," demanding that they deny the authority of the pope and the doctrine of the Real Presence. Meanwhile, the Prince of Orange, head of the Calvinist army, sent an order that the captives be released. The Ragamuffins ignored their leader's order. Herding the captives into a shed, they prepared to hang them from its beams, unless they would finally deny their Catholic faith. When all nineteen refused, they were hanged and their bodies were mutilated.

Now, although there were some saintly men among the victims, two of them did not have good records. James Lacops, a member of the Norbertine Fathers, has made light of the rule of his order, and when rebuked had resisted his superiors. Fortunately, he had made amends. But Andreas Wouters, a secular priest had scandalized many by flagrantly ignoring his vow of chastity. Yet when these unlikely men had been asked to deny their faith, they had stood firm. Far from being "other Christs" in their lives, they had truly become "other Christs" in their death. With the rest of their fellow martyrs they were canonized as saints in 1867.

God's grace is always free. The human mind can never appreciate the extent of His generosity . . . Salvation ... is not your own doing ... neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished so let no one pride himself on it. (Ephesians, 2.8-9. Today's first reading).

-Father Robert F. McNamara

Q364: What does the "snake" or "serpent" in the Gospel story about Nicodemus (John 3:14-17) have to do with Jesus?

Jesus himself calls our attention to the Old Testament story from the Book of Numbers (Nm 21:4ff) about the "bronze serpent." His words are important: "Just as…so…" The Israelites were being punished with serpent stings, causing death, because in their misunderstanding and lack of faith, they complained about the provisions from Yahweh of food and water on their desert journey. When they recognized their foolish sin, Moses interceded for them, and was told to mount a bronze serpent on a pole. Whoever looked at it with a believing and repentant heart (implied), would be saved from death.

The symbolism is clear. Jesus is foretelling a truth to Nicodemus: "Just as…so…" Look upon the "symbol of death" and believe in the true healing power of God's word, and that symbol becomes for you a "symbol of life." When Good Friday arrives, this symbolism reaches its climax. Our faith is tested to the extreme. Can this dead body represent new life for us? Of course we know the rest of the story - we know that Easter is right around the corner. We know that the Crucifix, with the corpus of Jesus nailed thereto, is indeed the Symbol of Life. But it calls for us to get in touch with our deepest beliefs, with our core of faith. And it calls for a repentant heart, as we gaze on this scene of an agonizing Messiah who brings us salvation through our faith in Him.

Jesus makes this element of trusting faith crystal clear for his listeners. Immediately after this story of the serpent, he says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! God permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim, for examples (CCC #2130). Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate (St. Thomas Aquinas; CCC #2132).


Page last modified on October 16, 2007, at 03:13 PM