[katoliko] Sunday Gospel and Homily (Fourth Sunday of Lent – Year B) for March 18, 2012 [3 Attachments]

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Sunday Gospel and Homily for March 18, 2012

Fourth Sunday of Lent – Year B

Lectionary: 32

 

First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 – from Old Testament – Other Historical Books

 

A reading from the second Book of Chronicles.

 

In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD's temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

 

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy. Their enemies burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah: "Until the land has retrieved its lost Sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled."

 

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!"

 

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

 

Responsorial Psalm:                                                                                    Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.

 

R/.  Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.  R/.

For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
"Sing for us the songs of Zion!"  R/.

How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!  R/.

May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.  R/.

 

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10 – from New Testament – (Paul’s Letters)

 

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians.

 

Brothers and sisters: God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ -by grace you have been saved, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

 

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

 

Gospel Reading: John 3:14-21 – from Four Gospels (Year B)

                            

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

 

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord.

 

 

 

“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.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

But that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

But whoever does not believe has already been condemned….”

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "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."

 

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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

 

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Reflection:

 

 

 

“God loved the world so much”

Inspiration of the Holy Spirit

From the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

When I told Nicodemus that the Son of Man had to be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, I was recalling the past when people offended God and their punishment was to be bitten by deadly serpents. So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; anyone bitten would have to look at the serpent of bronze to live. Numbers 21:8-9

I was declaring to the world that I was going to be crucified and die. I predicted that I was going to be exposed to everyone like a cursed dead serpent, so that by paying for your sins with my death you could find life in me through the forgiveness of yours sins.

And just as sin and death came to the world through the first man, so grace and life comes from the Son of Man, a title that I gave myself to represent the whole human race. Since the offense committed against the eternal God could not be repaid by anything of this world, so I was sent to the world to pay with my human and divine nature the punishment assigned to everyone which is death.

But God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

I did not come to condemn the world since it was already condemned by sin, I came to save it through my living sacrifice by which you obtained the forgiveness of your sins, to show you the love of God for His creation.

This is why I am still present in the Sacrifice of the Mass, providing my blood to cleanse you from your sins. The Holy Scriptures testify: "They will look on the one whom they have pierced." Zechariah 12:10

Make yourself worthy to be purified, eat of my flesh and drink of my blood to live.

I invite everyone to believe in me, to believe in my word, to believe in my suffering and death for your sins, to believe in the power of God that I have, believe that I will raise you up on the last day.

I am the light of the world, a light that dissipates the darkness of sin. Those who do not believe are missing out on the gift of God, they are condemning themselves since they prefer to live in darkness.

Come to the light my little child, do not be afraid, confess your sins, purify yourself in my blood and see with the eyes of the spirit the wonders that I present to you.

 

Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary

 

Homily:

 

“Rejoicing in God’s Love”

Homily by Fr. Munachi E. Ezeogu CSSP

 

"Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her" (Entrance Antiphon -- Isaiah 66:10-11). Why does the church invite us in the middle of the penitential season of Lent to rejoice? The story of a little incident that took place in Mainz in 1456 when Gutenberg was printing the first printed Bible can help us with the answer.

 

The printer had a little daughter, Alice, who came into the printing press and picked up a discarded sheet with only one line of print. That line of print read: "God loved the world so much that he gave..." Now, those were times when popular religion was a matter of living in fear and trembling before the awesome wrath of God. So Alice put the paper in her pocket and kept on thinking on the fact of God being so loving, and her face radiated with joy. Her mother noticed her changed behaviour and asked Alice what was making her so happy and Alice showed her mother the sheet of paper with the printed line. Her mother looked at it for some time and said, "So, what did God give?" "I don't know," said Alice, "but if God loved us well enough to give us something, then we need not be so afraid of Him."

 

What is love? What does it mean to say God loves us? To understand what the Bible means by God's love we must bear in mind that whereas the Greek language has three different words for three different types of love English has only one. In Greek the three different meanings of love are:

 

1.   Eros - meaning romantic love (like the love between a man and a woman that leads to marriage),

 

2.   Philia -  meaning fellowship love (like the love for football which brings people together to form a fan club), and

 

3.   Agap or sacrificial love - (like the love that makes a mother risk her own life for her yet unborn child).

 

In romantic love we long to receive, in fellowship love we long to give and take, in sacrificial love we long to give. Now, with what kind of love does God love us? God loves us with agap or sacrificial love. "God loved the world so much that He gave." That is one big difference between God and us: God gives and forgives, we get and forget. Giving is a sign of agap. This is the kind of love God has for us. This is the kind of love we should have for one another. This is the kind of love that is lived in heaven. And where this kind of love is absent, what you get is hell.

 

A certain saint asked God to show her the difference between heaven and hell. So God sent an angel to take her, first to hell. There she saw men and women seated around a large table with all kinds of delicious food. But none of them was eating. They were all sad and yawning. The saint asked one of them, "Why are you not eating?" And he showed her his hand. A long fork about 4ft long was strapped to their hands such that each time they tried to eat they only threw the food on the ground. "What a pity" said the saint. Then the angel took her to heaven. There the saint was surprised to find an almost identical setting as in hell: men and women sitting round a large table with all sorts of delicious food, and with a four-foot fork strapped to their arms. But unlike in hell, the people here were happy and laughing. "What!" said the saint to one of them, "How come you are happy in this condition?" "You see," said the man in heaven, "Here we feed one another." Can we say that of our families, our neighborhood, our church, our world? If we can say that, then we are not far from the kingdom of heaven.

 

Today the Church invites us to reflect on God's love for the world and to be joyful because of it. God loves each and everyone of us, so much so that He give us His only son. Today we are invited to say yes to God's love. It is sometimes hard to believe that God loves even me, But I believe it because I know that God loves unconditionally; no ifs, no buts. Then we can love God back and enter into a love relationship with God. Then, like little Alice, our faces will radiate the joy of God's love. Then we shall learn to share God's love with those around us. Then we shall learn to give to God and to one another,

 

Homily by Fr. Munachi E. Ezeogu CSSP

 

Note:

 

If we want to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, let us feed our minds what do Catholic teach and believe. No matter how precious and true our faith is, if we do not learn and tell others about it, they will not know about it and they will not embrace it. But how can we be ready to defend the truth of our faith, you may ask? You can’t give what you don’t have. We must make effort to know our faith more by knowing the basic documents of our faith, the Catechism teachings of the Catholic Church and the Catholic Bible.

 

It was St Jerome who said: “Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.”

 

Prepared by:

 

 

 

Ambrosio (Bong) Antioquia

Legion of Mary

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

St. Joachim Catholic Church

Hayward, CA. 94541-5809, USA

antio...@yahoo.com

 

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Attachment(s) from Ambrosio Antioquia

3 of 3 File(s)

Sunday Gospel and Homily for 03-18-12 - Fourth Sunday of Lent – Year B.pdf

Liturgy of the Word - Liturgical Year B (Gospel of John) - 03-18-12 - 4th Sunday of Lent - Year B.pdf

4 - St. John - 21 Chapters - 03-18-12 - Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B.pdf

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