Laetare Sunday rejoice and rocking the rose

 

Rejoice, Jerusalem: Laetare Sunday is Catholicism’s Best-Kept Little Secret

‘Rejoice with Jerusalem; be glad for her, all you that love this city! Rejoice with her now, all you that have mourned for her! You will enjoy her prosperity, like a child at its mother’s breast.’ (Isaiah 66:10-11)

Angelo Stagnaro

Laetare Jerusalem et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam; gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exsultetis et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. Psalm: Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.

Most Catholics knows about the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday — the day in which our excitement for the coming of the Lord is heightened because the Church assures us that it will soon be upon us.

Less known is Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Both days refer to happiness. In fact, the word laetare means “rejoice” in Latin. Gaudete means “joyful.” The connection is obvious as they are both days of joyous anticipation in the midst of what might seem like darkness. In fact, Easter is exactly 21 days from Laetare Sunday.

I’ve given up meat this Lent. A few years ago, I gave up chocolate. My family still refers to that as my annus horribilis (Latin: “the miserable year”) due to the untold, galactic-scale human suffering I unintentionally afflicted upon them due to the absence of chocolate in my life — ora pro nobis. The upside to my self-imposed suffering is that I’m pretty sure I’ve shaved off about 50 years of Purgatory due my sacrifice.

Fortunately or unfortunately, my family was able to take away about 1,000 years — give or take a decade — off any future stint in Purgatory for putting up with me and my chocolate-free misery.

And, you’re welcome.

The Church is so committed to both Advent’s Gaudete Sunday and to Lent’s Laetare Sunday, and seeks to impress and inspire joyful hope in the faithful during both fasting, vigilant periods, that she direct our priests to wear rose-colored vestments and festoon our churches accordingly.

It’s not easy to do, but only a real man can pull off pink.

Again, you’re welcome.

In both Lent and Advent, the color is a glimpse of the joy that awaits us at Christ’s coming — both in his birth and in his re-birth (i.e., Resurrection). Laetare Sunday signifies a temporary abeyance to our self-imposed penitential observations. There was a time when marriages during Lent could only be celebrated on this one day.

Laetare Sunday is meant as a joyous day despite the darkness of Lent. In fact, the French Canadian tradition known as Mi-Carême(i.e., Mid-Lent,) was a day Catholics would dress up in costumes and go from house-to-house singing and dancing for treats like a cross between Halloween and Christmas.

Traditionally, Catholics celebrated Laetare Sunday by visiting the church in which they were baptized, from which sprang the alternative moniker, “Mothering Sunday.” The day was also called “Five Loaves Sunday,” referring to the multiplication of the fish and loaves, because the Gospel reading had been reserved for this date prior to the use of contemporary lectionaries. Interestingly, Notre Dame University announces the recipient of its Laetare Medal on this day. Hopefully, I won’t be passed over yet again this year.

Historically, the Church had celebrated this day by handing out blessed golden roses to Catholic monarchs around the world, hence the name, Dominica de Rosa. Not coincidently, the word rosa means “pink” in Italian. Liturgically, rose describes a lighter shade of the color violet, thus signifying a relaxation of the Lenten rules.

The entrance antiphon this Sunday is a reference to Isaiah 66:10-11:

Rejoice with Jerusalem; be glad for her, all you [who] love this city! Rejoice with her now, all you [who] have mourned for her! You will enjoy her prosperity, like a child at its mother’s breast.

The word laetare is taken from the incipit for the Gregorian chant introit for the Latin Mass used on this day.

Laetare Sunday is meant to direct Catholics to “keep your eyes on the prize” in anticipation of Easter. We don’t suffer the deprivations of not eating chocolate just for some masochistic reason. Instead, our suffering unites us with Christ and, as Paul points out:

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ’s sufferings on behalf of his body, the church. And I have been made a servant of the church by God, who gave me this task to perform for your good. It is the task of fully proclaiming his message, which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people. (Colossians 1:24-26)

Once Easter arrives after an arduous Passion Week, we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection for 50 days. We fast and then we feast. If not, we lose the meaning of both. As Scriptures teach us, I wait eagerly for the Lord’s help, and in his word I trust (Psalm 130:5).

Celebrate Laetare Sunday keeping in mind Christ’s Resurrection, which the Jewish Patriarchs anticipated and hoped for. For us, it is at last in sight, for we are an Easter people!

What is Laetare Sunday?

 

Lent: March 19th

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Other Titles: Laetare Sunday

     

MASS READINGS

March 19, 2023 (Readings on USCCB website)

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Fourth Sunday of Lent: O God, who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way, grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Today is the halfway mark of the Sundays of Lent. This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday for the first word of the Introit or Entrance Antiphon laetare (rejoice); it is a Sunday of joy. The celebrant has the option to wear rose-colored vestments. This is also the Second Scrutiny in preparation for the baptism of adults at the Easter Vigil.

The Church’s liturgy, on this the Fourth Sunday of Lent, invites us to retrace one of the fundamental dynamics of our baptismal re-birth through the Gospel account of the healing of the ‘man born blind’. It is the passage from the darkness of sin and error to the Light of God, who is the Risen Christ.

The Solemnity of St. Joseph is usually celebrated on March 19, but has been transferred to March 20 since the liturgy of the Lenten Sundays take precedence.

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Meditation on the Liturgy

This Sunday has a place apart amongst the Sundays of Lent. As in Advent we had Gaudete Sunday, so in Lent we have a Sunday commonly called Laetare Sunday. The whole week, with its wealth of liturgical significance, is intensely interesting. This Sunday in vigesimal is in imitation of Byzantine custom, a Sunday in honor of Our Saviour's Cross, for which reason the Station is at Holy-Cross-in-Jersualem, a great devotional centre in Rome, especially during Passiontide. The great part of the Mass is inspired by this choice.

Lent is half over, and Easter is enticingly near. This Sunday is our foretaste of Easter joy. Knowing the ebb and flow of intensity even in our best efforts, God deals with us tenderly in rhythms of consolation and desertion. So today, thoughts of freedom and joy come in the middle of Lent. But the joy does more than cushion our failing energies and needle our lagging spirits. It is a positive, meaningful joy, born of our fruitful life in Christ and of our sweet freedom as His purchased children. The Eucharistic banquet of heavenly Bread, foreshadowed by the multiplied loaves and fishes and become now the Bread of Life for the whole Christian world, adds to our Laetare joy the quiet gladness of every festive meal.

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Sunday Mass Readings, Cycle A:

The First Reading, from the first Book of Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, contains, at best, oblique references to the other two readings. The anointing of David as king may be a reference to the anointing in the responsorial psalm both of which may refer to Christ the good shepherd. The figure of David may also be a prefigurement of the anointing to Messiahship of Jesus for his mission. Whatever the reason for its selection for this day, the theme of the liturgy is better reflected in the other two readings for they present implications and applications of the baptism of the believer.

The Second Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians 5:8-14 is particularly significant because throughout the season of Lent the community has been urged to cast aside deeds of darkness and walk in the brilliance of the light of Christ. In this reading, for the first time during Lent, the darkness-light theme which will be so predominant at Easter is enunciated. The believer must leave the deeds of darkness and live according to the justice and truth of God through the light of Christ. The selection of this reading for the Sunday liturgy of the second scrutiny emphasizes clearly that the preparation of a person coming to the faith is one of moral formation as well as in-formation about the faith. The preparation of adults to be baptized has more to do with choices and deeds than it does with dogmatic teaching.

The Gospel reading from John 9:1-41, dominates the liturgy by the length of the reading and its significance. Already, in Old Testament Revelation, the Lord God had shown the People of Israel how the justice of the Creator was so much more profound and true that the thoughts of men. We have, in fact, heard in the first reading ‘God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.' (1 Sam 16:76). The Lord pointed out in this way the true, unique, criteria on which men are judged. He also indicated the unique place in which man can meet God’s gaze and enter into a relationship with Him—in his heart. Obviously, by the word ‘heart’ the Bible doesn’t mean the centre of pulsation, but man’s ‘shrine’, his conscience where he can really listen and recognise God’s voice and so benefit from the Light: ‘for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth’. (Eph 5:9)

Man, incapable of remaining faithful to the truth that is in him, falls back to his own limited criteria. This criteria produces every malice, injustice and falsehood and is used to govern himself, to decide between good and evil, whilst hoping that what he obtains will be to his benefit and so in this way he acts ‘like God’ (Gen 3:5).

God doesn’t give up but comes to meet everyone of us in the two fold way described in today’s Gospel. Firstly, ‘he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes’ (Jn 9:6). God made man, who is a creature. He united Himself to ‘our earth’ so that man would never need to flee Him, but could come to recognise Him through a meeting with His Holy Humanity. St. John wrote in the Prologue to his Gospel, ‘The Word became flesh, he lived among us’ (Jn 1:14).

In the second place from the Gospel account we read, ’He said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”—which means Sent—‘. (Jn 9:7a). Christ, sent by the Father, takes onto Himself all our sins, which are ultimately the consequences of our blindness, as far as allowing Himself to be stripped, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, rejected by His own people and abandoned by His closest friends. Christ’s unprecedented love can’t but definitively overcome, with time, every fear in the face of our limitations because there isn’t anything that can stop Him from loving us. From the loving assumption of our rejection to our obtuseness murder, the Lord has worked extraordinary feats in history. He frequently offered His Body to the Father for our salvation and therefore has consecrated His entire Person for every one of us. He has introduced us into His Most Holy Heart, inflamed with love for us, which is the same as God’s light. In the Light of the Resurrection he made us a ‘new creation’ (cfr 2 Cor 5:17) and in the Gospel account we have heard ‘he went and washed, and came back able to see’. (Jn 9:7)

The indestructible link with Christ, which is founded on His love and fidelity, is the ‘new creation’ that was given to us on the day of our Baptism. Through the Sacraments of Christian initiation we are more profoundly linked with Christ. This ‘new creation’ can not bring fourth fruit in us without the full and renewed consent of our liberty that, in this earthly life, is expressed, reinvigorated and triumphs through the extraordinary events that Christ works in our lives. The blind man was interrogated by the world as to the precise details of his cure and with great simplicity he explained what happened to him: ‘The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went there and washed and was able to see.”’ (Jn 9:11)

Let us ask Most Holy Mary to help us to be faithful to the truth, to the events of our lives, taking the hand that always takes us to live totally for Him, in this life and eternity. ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ (Eph 5:14).

—From the Congregation for the Clergy

Today is Laetare Sunday; rejoice and rock the rose

 

Laetare, Jerusalem! Rejoice!

By Jennifer Gregory Miller ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 29, 2019 | In The Liturgical Year

     

Easter is almost here! “With childlike joy the Church begins to count the days.” Rev. Pius Parsch describes the Fourth Sunday of Lent so perfectly! (The Church’s Year of Grace, Volume 2, p. 212). While there is not much change liturgically for the Fourth Sunday of Lent except for the option of rose-colored vestments, there is much to this Sunday to unpack. I am pondering these key words for this Sunday: Joy, Rose, Jerusalem, and Mother.

General Instructions on Rejoicing

I always am a little jolted when I see the priest walking in wearing rose-colored vestments. Since this color vestment is worn twice a year, the Mass does stand out. Yet there is very little extra liturgical instruction for this Sunday. From The General Instruction on the Roman Missal:

346 f) The color rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent).

305. Moderation should be observed in the decoration of the altar.

During Advent the floral decoration of the altar should be marked by a moderation suited to the character of this time of year, without expressing in anticipation the full joy of the Nativity of the Lord.

During Lent it is forbidden for the altar to be decorated with flowers. Exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.

Floral decoration should always show moderation and be arranged around the altar rather than on the altar table.

313. In Lent the playing of the organ and musical instruments is allowed only in order to support the singing. Exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.

And these are the only instructions regarding this “Rejoicing” Sunday of Lent. This tradition of the Church requires further explanation to understand why we treat this Sunday differently.

Rejoice!

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally called “Laetare Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday,” with its counterpart in Advent being Gaudete Sunday. (It’s easy to get the names confused, but remembering that Lent and Laetare begin with “L” helps me place the name in the correct season.)

The names of the Sundays come directly from the first words used in the Introit or Entrance Antiphons in the original Latin:

LAETARE:
Latin: Lætare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum lætitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestræ.

English: Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.

GAUDETE:
Latin: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione et obsecratione cum gratiarum actione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum.

English: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.

Both Gaudete and Laetare are Latin verbs for rejoice, but with slightly different meanings. James-Charles Noonan, Jr. in his The Church Visible separates them in this manner:

Gaudete means expressed or exuberant joy. Laetare means internal joy, a joy of anticipation felt within the solemn season of Lent (p. 209).

I found it interesting that both forms of the words are included for this Sunday’s antiphon, so we can express both forms of joy.

What are the possible reasons for the expression of joy?

1. Lent has not always been a season of forty days. In the ancient church of Rome the first Lenten fasts began the Monday three weeks before Easter. Currently that would be Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter. So this day would have been more of a carnevale (farewell to meat) or Mardi Gras before the fasting began. Some of this “carnival” feel is still retained.
2. This Sunday is the Second Scrutiny for the Elect or catechumens, with the exorcism focusing on the message of the Gospel of the “Man Born Blind.” This Sunday is connected to the traditional “opening of the ears.” Like a family, we are eager and rejoicing on how much closer the Elect are to enter into the family of Christ.
3. The Fourth Sunday of Lent is truly the halfway point until Easter. This is a small preview of Easter. We are impatient in our anticipation and the Church reflects that mood. “Easter is near, rejoice!”
4. There is an underlying nature theme, reflecting the spring season of the Northern Hemisphere. We experience a holy spring with the resurrection of Christ, and our natural season of spring reflects this new life bursting forth. The rose used as the vestment color and the tradition of the Golden Rose blessed today points to the connection of spring.
5. We are rejoicing with our holy Mother Church, and also have this Sunday to praise our holy Mother Church, also referred to as “Jerusalem.”

A Rose By Any Other Name

Most priests get a little defensive wearing the rose-colored vestments. They often emphasize that they are wearing not pink but rose. Wikipedia defines rose as the color halfway on the RGB color wheel between red and magenta, which makes the color a lot stronger than some of these sickly pale pink or mauve vestments I’ve seen. Regardless what exact version of rose the vestment maker chose to use, the message is that it is a muted color. The softness and not full spectrum of color reflects that this is muted rejoicing. It is “a sort of compromise between the penitential purple and the lighter colors used on feasts of joy” (Rev. John Sullivan, Externals of the Catholic Church, p. 142). We are not fully into Easter, so we are joyful, but not in the full Easter joy.

The rose is also a tie to spring. Again, Rev. Pius Parsch describes so beautifully:

That our Easter festival should fall during the first weeks of spring is certainly no accident. Today, this third Sunday before Easter, is the Church’s springtime festival. All men stand in wonder before the yearly miracle of spring, but we Christians have especial cause for wonderment and awe. For us, nature is the symbol of a fairer springtime, the springtime of grace in the kingdom of our God. Grace has filled our souls, and the death, the night, the cold of winter is passed. Woodlands and meadows are gay with the blossoms of spring; the air is vibrant with the song of the bird; and in this mirror of nature we see the reflection of a higher life still, the life of grace within our souls. Spring follows winter in unfailing succession; so too we are conscious that God has raised our fallen nature from its dreary winter sleep to the springtime of grace. We cannot believe in the eternal wickedness of the human heart. The joy of spring must return, and goodness, love, peace and grace once more blossom in our hearts. Nowhere could we find a fairer image of this transition from original sin to grace. Each year confronts us with the miracle of spring; each year, then, let us look into this mirror and see the greater miracle that God works in our souls: the miracle of grace.

The Church now chooses the loveliest flower of spring, the early rose, and brings it into God’s house and into the liturgy. The rose is the image of the soul in grace. The queen of flowers, it blossoms on its stem of thorns. The soul too is surrounded with thorns, the thorns of a world that God once cursed, the thorns of original sin. Yet in spite of these it is raised up to the glory of grace; to grace that is clothed, red as a rose, in the mantle of love; to grace that blossoms forth from the greenery of hope. And as the rose in full bloom displays its countless petals, so too must the soul expand in its Christian life, emitting the sweet fragrance of its virtues. May the garden of the Church this Easter time become a garden of roses, a garden of souls in full bloom with the flowers of grace. For the rose is the symbol of grace (Seasons of Grace, pp. 167-168).

There was a Roman custom (dating at least from the tenth century) of wearing of flowers to celebrate the victory of spring over winter. This led to the tradition of the pope blessing a natural rose in the eleventh century, and later it became a crafted artificial golden rose, often ornately decorated, which after being blessed would be conferred by the pope to either distinguished persons, churches, shrines or cities. Father Francis Weiser, S.J. explains in further detail:

The meaning and symbolism of the Golden Rose is expressed in the prayer of blessing. It represents Christ in the shining splendor of His majesty, the “flower sprung from the Root of Jesse.” From this ecclesiastical custom Laetare Sunday acquired its German name, Rosensonntag (Sunday of the Rose) (The Easter Book, p. 72).

And this is the translation of the traditional Golden Rose blessing:

O Lord, on this day,
when the Church exults in Thy name and manifests her joy by this sign,
confer upon us through her true and perfect joy and accepting her devotion of today;
do Thou remit sin, strengthen faith, increase piety, protect her in Thy mercy,
drive away all things adverse to her and make her ways safe and prosperous,
so that Thy Church, as the fruit of good works,
may unite in giving forth the perfume of the ointment
of that flower sprung from the Root of Jesse
and which is the mystical flower of the field and lily of the valleys,
And remain happy without end in eternal glory together with all the saints.

James-Charles Noonan, Jr., shares the historical aspect of the Golden Rose:

...The Rose has romantic origins. A society of religious sisters in Tulle, Alsace, was granted independence from the local bishop by Pope Leo IX in 1049. In gratitude for this mark of papal respect and in natural gratitude for independence from local authority, the community sent a delegation to Rome each year to present the pope with a “golden rose.”

...Although the Rose itself has taken many forms of design through the ages, it is always made of solid gold. The original design was quite simple, but later, with the influence of the baroque period, it became quite ornate. During the modern pontificates of Paul VI and his successors, it has once again taken a more simplified design.

In the past, the Golden Rose was encrusted with sapphires, gems usually reserved for members of the Sacred College. Sapphires were chosen as a symbolic reference to the high esteem of the Golden Rose and its recipients. The base of the Rose, regardless of its design, has always had a hidden basin as a repository for balsam and musk. The Rose is bestowed on those recipients who, through the virtue of their lives, exude the fragrance of all virtues, thus the incorporation of symbolic fragrances. The basin also incorporated a reliquary for a relic of the True Cross (The Church Visible, pp. 106-107).

He describes the first time it was awarded, during the First Crusade in 1096, and highlights some who have received this gift of the Roman Pontiff. The rose is still given even in this pontificate, but less as mark of personal stature. Pope Francis has given the rose to two Marian shrines.

So those rose vestments should bring to mind the spring season, muted rejoicing, the Golden Rose, the Root of Jesse, etc., which are all much richer thoughts than the bi-annual jokes about whether the priest is or is not wearing pink.

This weekend is Laetare Sunday; a time to rejoice in the middle of Lent

 

Laetare Sunday: The Suffering of Jesus Leads Us to God’s Mercy

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …” (John 3:16). (photo: Unsplash / Unsplash)

John Bergsma Sunday GuideMarch 12, 2021

Sunday, March 14, is Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Mass Readings (Year B): 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23; 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21.

Happy Laetare Sunday! 

Laetare is Latin for “rejoice,” and it comes from the entrance antiphon of today’s Mass: “Rejoice, O Jerusalem!” (Isaiah 60:10). We have crossed the halfway point of Lent, and the Church encourages us to celebrate our progress today. It’s like climbing a long flight of stairs and taking a breather on the landing halfway up. Rose-colored vestments are worn as a sign of joy. It’s a good day for a nicer-than-normal Sunday meal and some family festivities — but not too much, as it’s not Easter yet!

Your parish might be using the Year A readings, which dovetail with the RCIA process, but here we will comment on the Year B readings. In the first reading, we’ve been following the course of salvation history, which is really our spiritual family history. We’ve reviewed the Noahic Covenant (First Sunday), the Abrahamic Covenant (Second Sunday), the Mosaic (or Sinai) Covenant (Third Sunday), and today’s reading could be called “Covenant Collapse.” We read from the end of 2 Chronicles a summary statement of Israel’s failure to live by God’s covenant; “in those days, all the [people] added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations,” our text says, and so God let them be exiled to Babylon. Our responsorial Psalm (Psalm 137) was written about this experience of exile: “By the streams of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion …” Yet not all is doom and gloom. After 70 years, Cyrus King of Persia conquers Israel’s captors, the Babylonians, and lets all the Judeans return to their land and their holy city Jerusalem. So God’s justice has a limit, and his mercy has the final word. 

Our second reading reminds us that we, just like the Israelites of old, have been saved not because of our merit but because of God’s mercy: “God, who is rich in mercy … even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” We certainly don’t earn our salvation: “For by grace you have been saved through faith … it is the gift of God; it is not from works.” But good works certainly do have a role in our salvation: We are “created in Christ Jesus for the good works …that we should live in them.” Misunderstandings about this teaching led to the tragedy of the Protestant schism. Luther pitted grace and faith against good works; but in fact, grace and faith lead to good works.

Our Gospel also emphasizes God’s great mercy. It is the famous conversation of Jesus with the Jewish leader Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin (a kind of Senate). Jesus tells him: “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.” This recalls an incident from the wilderness wanderings of Israel (Numbers 21), when the Israelites rebelled against God and fell prey to poisonous snakes. But Moses made a bronze snake on a pole, and all who looked at it were kept alive. It wasn’t by their great strength or merit, but simply by looking toward God who provided a way of salvation for them. Jesus continues with the most famous verse of the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …” (John 3:16). 

Just as serpents were a sign of evil, so the Crucifixion is, in itself, a sign of evil: an innocent man suffering torture and execution. 

But God turns this evil into the source of our salvation. That’s what God specializes in: bringing good out of bad. Out of Israel’s covenant failures, he brought us Jesus; out of Jesus’ unjust death, he brings us salvation. This gives us the courage to believe: Whatever evils we are suffering now, God can turn them to our good. So rejoice!

Pope Francis celebrates Sunday Mass on this 4th Sunday of Lent

Pope Francis at the end of Sunday Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, 22 March 2020 

POPE FRANCIS

• Pope Francis
• homily
• mass
• santa marta
• Gospel of the Day

Pope at Mass: Jesus passes by, let's not miss Him

Pope Francis reflects on the healing of the blind man at the Casa Santa Marta during the Mass he celebrated on Sunday morning for those who are dying alone. (Playback of the liturgy included)

By Vatican News

“In these days we're hearing the news of so many people who are dying…dying alone, without being able to say goodbye to their loved ones”. These were the words with which Pope Francis began his Mass on Sunday morning at the Casa Santa Marta.

“Let's think about them and pray for them. For families as well, who cannot accompany their loved ones on that journey. We pray in a special way for the dying and for their families.”

Jesus passes by

Pope Francis began his homily saying the 9^th Chapter of John “speaks for itself”. It’s a “proclamation of Jesus Christ”, and a “catechesis”, he said. The rest of his homily was a reflection on the words of St Augustine which the Pope said “always touch” him: “I am afraid when the Lord passes by because I am afraid that He will pass and I might not notice Him”.

“One thing is true. In Jesus’ presence, the true sentiments of the heart come forth. Our true attitudes come out. This is a grace. Because of this St Augustine was afraid to let Him pass by without realizing it.”

Listen to our report

Jesus brings out the best

When Jesus passes by, He heals the blind man and creates a “scandal”. “It brings out both the best and the worst in people”, the Pope continued. This brought out the best in the blind man.

“The blind man’s wisdom in how he responds is astonishing. He was used to moving around with his hands. He could sniff danger. He sensed anything that was dangerous and might make him slip. He moved around like a blind person. His arguments are clear and precise. He even uses irony.”

Jesus brings out the worst

This scandal, instead, brought out the worst in the doctors of the law.

“They knew all of the laws, every single one of them. But they were fixated there. They didn't understand when God was passing by. They were rigid, attached to their customs. Jesus Himself says so in the Gospel…. And so, in order to preserve these customs, committing an injustice wasn't a problem because their customs said that [what Jesus had done] was not just. That rigidity led them to commit an injustice. Jesus’ presence evoked the sentiment of closure”.

Pick up the 9^th chapter of John

Pope Francis concluded his homily with the invitation to “pick up the Gospel today…and read it calmly at home, one or two times, in order to really understand what happens when Jesus passes by.”

“May it provoke our sentiments to come out so we might understand well what Saint Augustine tells us, ‘I'm afraid when the Lord passes, because He might pass by and I may not recognize it and convert myself.' ”

What is Laetare Sunday and why do we see pink?

Laetare Sunday

 

The fourth, or middle, Sunday of Lent, so called from the first words of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem " -- "Rejoice, O Jerusalem ". During the first six or seven centuries the season of Lent commenced on the Sunday following Quinquagesima, and thus comprised only thirty-six fasting days. To these were afterwards added the four days preceding the first Sunday, in order to make up the forty days' fast, and one of the earliest liturgical notices of these extra days occurs in the special Gospels assigned to them in a Toulon manuscript of 714. Strictly speaking, the Thursday before Laetare Sunday is the middle day of Lent, and it was at one time observed as such, but afterwards the special signs of joy permitted on this day, intended to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, were transferred to the Sunday following. They consist of (like those of Gaudete Sunday in Advent ) in the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Vespers ; rose-coloured vestments also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dalmatics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent. The contrast between Laetare and the other Sundays is thus emphasized, and is emblematical of the joys of this life, restrained rejoicing mingled with a certain amount of sadness. The station at Rome was on this day made at the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven chief basilicas ; the Golden Rose, sent by the popes to Catholic sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time, and for this reason the day was sometimes called "Dominica de Rosa". Other names applied to it were Refreshment Sunday, or the Sunday of the Five Loaves, from a miracle recorded in the Gospel; Mid-Lent, mi-carême , or mediana ; and Mothering Sunday, in allusion to the Epistle, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because formerly the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church on this day. This latter name is still kept up in some remote parts of England, though the reason for it has ceased to exist