GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON,

SO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM MIGHT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

Catherine of Siena speaking to the Father told him: “It seems, oh, Abyss of Charity, as if you were MAD WITH LOVE OF YOUR CREATURE, as if You could not live without him, and yet You are our God who have no need of us” and she also called him “LOVING MADMAN”. She understood what Jesus told Nicodemus: “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so everyone might have eternal life”. It is only the madness of love that can do this. Let me say this: All of you are mad. This is how people see you who leave the comfort of your homes and give your time and your abilities to do everything possible to try to stop human trafficking. Indeed you are mad with love of God and of your fellow human beings. Otherwise how can you explain your dedication to this risky service to God and to man?

A few weeks ago somebody asked me why would God want the cruel death of his Son in order to pay for our sins and satisfy his justice. He must be a cruel God, then! He is not! I answered that, notwithstanding our frequent sins, he still wanted our salvation and that we obtain eternal life. So he took the risk inherent to the mystery of the Incarnation. He asked his only Son to take on him our human condition with everything that comes with it, such as death and human wickedness.

St Thomas Aquinas, commenting on Christ’s dialogue with Nicodemus, wrote: “The Lord assigned as the cause of spiritual regeneration the coming down of the Son and the lifting up of the Son of Man; and he set forth its fruit, which is eternal life. (Commentary on St. John’s gospel)

St Catherine relates what the Father told her: “I have told you that I have made a Bridge of My Word, of My only-begotten Son, and this is the truth. I wish that you, My children, should know that the road was broken by the sin and disobedience of Adam, in such a way, that no one could arrive at Eternal Life … So the height of the Divinity, humbled to the earth, and joined with your humanity, made the Bridge and reformed the road. Why was this done? In order that man might come to his true happiness with the angels. And observe, that it is not enough, in order that you should have life, that My Son should have made you this Bridge, unless you walk thereon." (Dialogue).

In the entrance antiphon to today’s Mass, the liturgy borrows from Prophet Isaiah the call for Joy: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her”.  It seems strange that in the midst of Lenten penance we receive this call. It is not strange at all because Lent makes us look forward to Easter and resurrection. Hosea tells us: “Come, let us return to the Lord, it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence” (Hos 6, 1-2).

My parents came with me to Brazil, and after a long flight from Rome, we landed in Sao Paolo. My father asked me: “We arrived in Brazil?” I answered “Yes!” “So we arrived home!” he said. “Not yet”, I answered, “We have to take another plane”. When the plane landed he asked me again: “We arrived? Home?” “Not yet”, I answered “We have an hour’s ride by car to arrive home!” My parents had never travelled so far.

We have never travelled all the way to Our Father’s home. However our faith experience would tell us that we arrived, but not yet! We are travelling along the bridge that God the Father built for us “In order that man might come to his true happiness with the angels”. And this is what Jesus told 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.”

We are pilgrims here on earth. The Father told Catherine: “The pilgrim, having passed the Bridge, arrives at the door which is part of the Bridge, at which all must enter, wherefore He [my Son] says: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but in light.' … I have already shown you that He is a Road in the form of the Bridge.”

The liturgy ask us to rejoice, so let us listen to St. Augustine of Hippo who invites us: “So now, my brethren, let us sing, not to delight our leisure, but to ease our toil. In the way that travellers are in the habit of singing, sing, but keep on walking. What does it mean, “keep on walking”? Go onward always – but go onward in goodness, for there are, according to the Apostle, some people who go ever onward from bad to worse. If you are going onward, you are walking; but always go onward in goodness, onward in the right faith, onward in good habits and behaviour. Sing, and walk onwards”. (Sermo 256, I.2.3.: PL 38, 1191-1193, used in the Roman Office of Readings for Saturday in the 34th week of ordinary time)

Delivered on March 15, 2015, Fourth Sunday of Lent (Readings 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21)