Homily for 4th Sunday in Lent B

Bon Jovi reminds us that we are halfway there and we are living on a prayer.  He must have been referring to Laetare Sunday!  Here we are, on this 4th Sunday of Advent, looking pretty in pink, I mean rose, a little bit past the halfway point of Lent!  The church calls us to laetare; rejoice!

As people of faith, we are a joyful people and we hold on to what we got:
…”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.  There is much cause for rejoicing with this Word of Truth.  And as hearers of this Truth we are called to be doers of this Truth!  You see Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus, and all of us too: “whoever believes in Him will not be condemned but whoever does not believe has already been condemned.”  In His divine plan, God has set it up that we must do something, in this case, we must believe.  And God sets this up where He will never force us to believe; we are free to accept or reject His plan, free to accept or reject the Truth, free to accept or reject relationship and friendship with Him, free to accept or reject adoption with Him as sons and daughters of the Father.  God does His part; we are called to do ours!

God calls us to look always for the light; not the light that comes with daylight savings time; the light that comes from Jesus; actually IS Jesus; the Light that came into the world, the Light we are called to come to, so we may live in His Truth!  Again, there is much cause for rejoicing here!

For us, here today, as we enter fully into this 4th week of Lent, we are called to focus on a spirit of rejoicing as Easter draws close.  But, as Bon Jovi reminds us, we have to hold on to what we’ve got.  Are we clinging to our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving?  Are we Jesus to another by the gift of ourselves, our presence and our time?  Are we both hearers and doers of His word in our everyday coming in and going out?  Have we attended a Lenten devotion like our parish mission or Stations of the Cross?  Good news for those who would answer no; we have another mission and we have upcoming Stations of the Cross!   Are we the joy others see when they look upon us, are we the only Jesus they may see when they see us?  Are we looking for the Jesus in others?
Brothers and sisters, we are halfway there, we indeed are living on a prayer, let’s hold on to what we’ve got and Laetare!!!  Rejoice, again I say rejoice!