Lent moves forward and it is time to focus on what is most important and fundamental to our faith. Does the season of Lent talk more about our sins? Definitely no! Lent focuses on the love of God. That’s the centre of the Christian life.
Both the second reading and the Gospel drive home the theme well. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus — delete his name and add your own name there – an attentive disciple—and tells him a phrase that should be written down in our hearts: “God so loved the world so much that he gave his only Son”. It speaks of God’s is a crazy love without measure.
How often have we listened to the phrase, “virtue stands in the middle”? This is the logic of the world — do not take the extremes! But when it comes to God’s love, his virtue is the extreme or passionate love. And Jesus would invite us to read the famous chapter 13 of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
The second reading from Paul to the Ephesians leaves no doubt in his listeners about the way God is and his relationship with us: “God, who is rich in mercy and has great love for us”. That makes us rethink about the miserable ways we have been living our faith and our relationship with God. But Paul does not leave us in the misery. He reassures that “though we were dead through our sins, yet he brought us back to life together with Christ”.
The first reading speaks of the return of the deportees in Babylon. That exile was a consequence of the sin of the people. But their liberation was not because the deportees had repented and were converted. Instead it was the result of pure love of God who inspires Cyrus to liberate his people.
There is nothing more to be said. Simply ruminate these phrases, accept them in our hearts. Remove from our minds those preconceived ideas we have about a punishing God, who is attentive to our smallest faults to punish us, who looks at us with distrust, who does not believe in us, etc. It is up to us either to accept or reject the love and life that God gives us in Jesus. God does not ask anything of us in return. He gives us the gift of love so that we can live it and share it without measure. What more can we ask for? Lent is about looking up, recognising the love with which God loves us and realising that following him is the best thing we can do with our lives.
For your reflection
I thank God for the immense love with which he loves me and the mercy he showers upon us. How do I share that love and mercy? Try to be concrete and express some concrete way of sharing that love with others.
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by Father Alberto Rossa CMF
