Don Bosco Philippines South Province

Homily on the 4th Sunday of Lent, 10 March 2024

It was exactly one month ago that I was led to anoint a patient fighting for his life inside the ICU of Chong Hua. At first I hesitated to respond to the sick call because I was really feeling exhausted precisely at the end of a three-day seminar we organized in Don Bosco. But since I couldn’t find any other priest available at that time to go on my behalf I decided to pull myself up from a powernap, and then went straight to the ICU. Seeing how critical the patient was I heard his confession and anointed him with the holy oil. Before I left the room Lolo Tonyo the penitent on the bed spoke a few words to me expressing his sincere gratitude for having offered to him the sacraments of healing. And because of that he said he felt at peace. God is truly a God of infinite love, mercy and compassion.

Today we express our profound gratitude to God for having answered our prayers and for giving that person another chance to live and come back home to his family. Though he has not fully recovered yet our hopes are high that, with the prayerful wishes, gestures of love and tender care that each of his children are extending to him despite their busy schedules, he will eventually overcome this crisis and soon experience total healing.

By divine coincidence today as we begin this fourth week of our Lenten preparation for Easter we are celebrating “Laetare Sunday.” In Latin the word “laetare” means Rejoice! It comes from the first word of the entrance antiphon of today: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning: exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.” Today, therefore, we are enjoined & encouraged to rejoice because even if we are unworthy, God chooses to show us his mercy.

In the gospel passage we have heard today Jesus reveals God’s plan of salvation to a certain Jew named Nicodemus who came to see him secretly one night. That man was a leading Pharisee and he had been hearing much about the rising popularity of Jesus. He must have been intrigued by the newness of his teachings despite being a carpenter’s son from a small and humble town of Nazareth. Moreover he must have been amazed at his incredible power to heal the sick, cast out demons and perform other miraculous deeds. No Pharisee has ever taught the people with such authority and impact like Jesus. In fact Nicodemus himself was beginning to feel that God must truly be at work in him.

And so that night in his private audience with Jesus he asked a lot of questions which Jesus answered satisfactorily well. What is most amazing is that in the course of their conversation Jesus revealed to Nicodemus the heart of the GOSPEL message which he has come to proclaim:

“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 (John 3:16-17).

In other words, Jesus was telling this Pharisee that God was not the God whom they used to know as an angry and punishing God but rather a God who is kind, merciful, loving and compassionate. Even if humankind is unworthy, God chooses to show mercy.

Often in the Old Testament God has been seen as a terrifying judge and ruthless punisher. Kung ikaw magkasala, silotan jud ka sa Ginoo. (If you commit a sin, God is sure to punish you.) For example, in the Book of Genesis we read that because of the sin committed by Adam and Eve they were condemned to death and banished from paradise. In the Book of Exodus Pharaoh and the Egyptians were punished with ten plagues for not believing in Moses as God’s prophet; and Pharaoh’s army was wiped out at the Red Sea for obstinately pursuing the Israelites who were marching to their freedom by God’s powerful hand.

Many years later after having settled in the Promised Land called Cana, the Israelites became unfaithful to their covenant with God. And because of that they were punished. Their city was burned down and destroyed and those who survived were exiled in the pagan city of Babylon. This is exactly what the book of Chronicles narrated for us in the first reading of today.

I quote “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.” And because of their sins, a terrible misfortune happened to them. I quote further, “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.” In other words, the Israelites suffered a second slavery but this time in Babylon. All those tragic events gave impression that God was a punishing God.

But the good news is this. God was not a ruthless God after all as many of them thought. On the contrary God had always shown mercy by sending prophets to warn them and call them back to his loving embrace. He even raised on the throne a Persian King who after defeating the Babylonians ordered the immediate release of his people from their slavery in Babylon so that they could go back to their own land and rebuild their lives once again.

So if a pagan king in the person of King Cyrus of Persia could save his people, we now understand why he did not spare his own Son Jesus but sent him to our world to carry out his universal plan of salvation. This is precisely the context in which Jesus was proclaiming the Good News to Nicodemus.

And Jesus went on to teach that, if in the Old Testament, God had commanded Moses to lift the image of a serpent on a pole and use it to save the Israelites from the venom of snakes that attacked them in the desert, we now understand why he had his Son Jesus lifted up on the cross in order to save the entire humanity from the venom of sin. In fact this is the biggest Good News in all of history, God sent his Son not to condemn us sinners but to save us through his death on the cross.

And this is precisely the paschal mystery we are preparing to celebrate three weeks from now. During the Holy Week we will be commemorating the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection as the clearest proof that God continues to love us despite our many sins and infidelities against him and against one another.

Today every time the priest raises the consecrated bread and wine during the Holy Mass, Jesus continues to be lifted up on the cross so that all of us may experience God’s infinite love, mercy, and compassion. Similarly every time the priest raises his sacred hand and prays over the penitent in the sacrament of Confession Jesus continues to be lifted up on the cross so that every sinner who humbly confesses his or her sins may experience God’s untiring and unlimited forgiveness.

Brothers and sisters the healing of Lolo Tonyo is a very clear sign that God really cares with an amazing love and compassion for him and his family. But let us remember that God, being a pure spirit, is invisible. So how has he possibly shown that love and compassion? I believe it was through the expertise & dedication of the doctors and the nurses who have attended to him in the hospital; but above all through the loving care and concern his children continue to show him in his darkest moments. And we believe that through the continuing sacrifices they offer when they take turns in the delicate task of watching and care-giving, they show that God is truly a God of mercy, love and compassion.

May this Eucharist unite all of us around Christ who came not to condemn us but to save us from eternal death and show that God is really a God of infinite love, mercy and compassion. Remember this: even if we are unworthy, all the more does God show us his infinite mercy. GiGsss!

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