4th SUNDAY
OF LENT
Ephesians 2:4-10
John 3:14-21
“For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son…”
We are already in the fourth Sunday of lent. As we approach nearer and nearer to the celebration of Christ's paschal mystery, our liturgy prepares us to a more intense and intimate evaluation of our relationship with the Lord.
Today’s gospel is most opportune. It invites us to meditate on the magnanimous love of God even to a sinful world. But from how John presents his gospel, we can derive three important points: first, the evangelical necessity of the cross; second, the father’s love as the reason of such evangelical necessity of the cross; third, salvation means faith in such love.
1. At the outset, we must be clear. The cross is not necessary for our salvation. God could have saved us in and through many other ways. Even by the simplest act of his will, salvation would just be as perfect as what we have now. But among the many other possible ways, God chooses the cross. This now makes the big difference. The death of Christ on the cross does not come as a mere accident, but proceeds primarily from the will of God. In other words, it was part of God’s salvific plan, and once a part, it has become always that way. Because of this, the cross is now so necessary. This is what we mean here by evangelic necessity, i.e., the cross becomes the necessary component of the good news. Salvation consists in the cross of Christ and in the Christ of the cross.
Again, this is not accidental. Neither its meaning is purely metaphorical. In today’s gospel, John seems emphatic as he puts these words in Jesus’ mouth: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” --- The serpent Moses lifted up became their salvation in the desert. To take it as purely literal would be too much; but to mean it as purely symbolic would also be too less. As narrated, those who looked at it with faith did not die. No doubt, it must be more than a symbol. In fact, a common sense teaches us to suppose that those who looked at it but without faith or those who had faith but did not look at it perished. Thus, the reverence Catholics have for the cross (and for other images for that matter) is neither by chance nor by whim. It is more than all else, evangelic.
2. “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.” --- Our own human experience teaches us the most fundamental love of parents to their children. Right from the start, parents prepare as best as they can for the coming of a child into this world. Even the midst of life’s poverty, they always try to save a cent just because a child is coming. This attitude does not end with the child’s birth it continues even all the more. Not only for the expensive milk nowadays, has the child surely demanded for toys too. Then, the child soon goes to school and the demands get even bigger. All these the parents know. They are ready to forget about themselves just to attend to the needs of the beloved child. But what happens when after years of painful sacrifices, the child turns vagabond? What in the world will the poor parents do? Nothing can perhaps compare their bad feelings. But even then, their love to the child will always prevail.
This parental love made God test to Abraham. He knew this would be the last thing man could ever give up. In this sense, he would be putting Abraham into the greatest test. Thus, he asked for Isaac's life. It was surely heart-breaking, on the part of the great patriarch. But not only in faith was Abraham strong. He was also great in his love for his son, Isaac. God perfectly read his heart, and must have felt what his faithful servant felt. God simply understood and he spared Isaac.
Bt God did not spare his own son, beloved and only begotten Son at that. And worse, Christ was not spared not only from ordinary death, but from the death on the cross. Such kind of death was just that scandalous. It was demeaning of a God-man. And yet, the father did not let it pass. At the wood of the cross hung his only Son.
There is no other reason for this: the Father loves us so much. Revelation enables us to know this truth. But reason gets into it in a much easier way because it goes with thr rhythm of human experience. The death on the cross was the most humiliating form of death at that time. By choosing this kind of death, man may understand how God humbles himself just to show his love. Had God chosen other means, his love could have been less understandable and less meaningful. The closer the chosen means is to man’s experience, the more meaningful it becomes.
3. Because of this magnanimous love, the
cross which was once a humiliation has now becomes the greatest exaltation not
only on earth but also above and under it. This is one important point in
today’s gospel. John stresses that God had already done his part in history.
And he did it with one purpose: for our salvation. “For God did not send his son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world might be served through him.”
Thus, our salvation consists precisely in our response of faith to God’s love,
and our damnation consists in our disbelief on it. And what is striking here is
the sense of the “ipso facto”, “whoever
does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the
name of the only Son of God.”
This gives us a more profound insight of what sin is. Sin is that which surely separates us from God, either because we do bad or we do not do any good. But in this case, the gospel seems to suggest that by not doing good, we are actually doing bad. So, the “fact itself” condemns us, to say. And the gospel itself provides the fundamental explanation of this. god himself, by sending his son, has given man the greatest gift which is the clearest proof of his love. This gift is totally gratuitous, completely undeserved. Yet, it is very good and in fact the best of all possible good. Thus, once man rejects it or simply does not accept it or even does not do anything about it, he – by fact and in fact – either rejects the good or does not simply accept the good or does not do anything about the good. And since such good is just the good at all, doing nothing about it becomes bad. Besides, if Christ is sent so that through him the world may be saved, doing nothing about the way to salvation is putting oneself in condemnation. What a bad thing!