Jesus and Nicodemus
It is the 4th Sunday of Lent, often called "Laetare Sunday" which means "to rejoice" when the Catholic Church celebrates to rejoice in the midst of our mourning the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is often called "Gaudete Sunday" very similar to Gaudete Sunday on the third week of Advent just before Christmas where we are called to rejoice the coming birth of Jesus.
Call it strange, but if our Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer and die on the cross, we would never enter life eternal, which we could only have with the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross on Good Friday. Lest you have forgotten, without Good Friday, we can never have the joy of Easter Sunday. Our gospel reading today comes from John 3:14-21, and a beautiful conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus.
"14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
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For this fourth Sunday of Lent, you will notice that priests celebrating the Holy Mass wear pink vestments as this is the color of joy. This color is only used twice, on the third Sunday of Advent on Gaudete Sunday and on Laetare or Gaudete Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent. There are two important teachings in today's gospel that all Catholics must learn.
The first verse of today's gospel is a teaching from our Lord Jesus Christ that he imparted to his friend, Nicodemus, when he declared,"14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." How many times have we Catholics been chastised by our separated brethren for worshiping idols? So this teaching comes from the Torah in the book of Numbers 21:9 which declared, "So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed."
Jesus also clearly pointed out "The Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." This "lifting up" happened after our Lord was nailed to the cross and his Roman executioners lifted the cross and everyone who gazed upon the suffering Messiah would be healed. This lifting up happens at every Mass when the priest lifts up the Holy Eucharist where the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is totally present in all the altars of the world.
Finally, we read the most quoted verse in the Bible, John 3:16, which our Lord Jesus Christ tells Nicodemus, 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. These words come from the Son of God himself, the second person in the Blessed Trinity. But this time, Jesus speaks of God in Love with his creation. Indeed, "Deus Caritas Est" God is love! But lest you have forgotten the words of St. Augustine, "The God who created you, cannot save you without you!"
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