{"id":4919,"date":"2024-03-10T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=4919"},"modified":"2024-03-16T18:46:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T18:46:27","slug":"commentary-on-4th-sunday-of-lent-b-10-03-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/commentary-on-4th-sunday-of-lent-b-10-03-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on 4th Sunday of Lent (B), 10.03.2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie<\/a><\/h3>\n

Jn 3:14-21\u00a0 <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus said, \u201cJust as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. \u00a0For 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.\u00a0 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.\u00a0 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.\u00a0 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.\u00a0 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.\u00a0 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This fourth Sunday of Lent is known as ‘Laetare Sunday’.\u00a0 In Latin laetare <\/em>(rejoice) is the first word of the entrance antiphon: “Rejoice, Jerusalem\u2026.”\u00a0 Joy is the theme of today’s Liturgy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can joy be turned on and off?\u00a0 Can you experience joy just because today is the 4th Sunday of Lent?\u00a0 “He who binds to himself a joy \/ Doth the winged life destroy,” said William Blake.\u00a0 And besides, what an unlikely season for it! you might say.\u00a0 You must kiss it as it flies, said Blake; you cannot arrange it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn,” (Psalm 29:5).\u00a0 You can no more arrange for joy to descend on you than you can arrange for the sun to rise.\u00a0 Joy is a fruit of God’s Spirit, not a feeling that can be turned on and off.\u00a0 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).\u00a0 Notice that St Paul places it directly after love, so close is it to the heart of the Faith.\u00a0 It is a gift, not a purchase.<\/span><\/p>\n

“God loved us with so much love\u2026. It is through grace that you are saved,” (2nd reading).\u00a0 “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son\u2026” (today’s gospel reading).\u00a0 God loves us<\/em>: this is the source of our joy, whether we actually experience it or not at the moment.\u00a0 Quite often we see the Christian faith diminished to a morality, an account of what we should do: how we should love God and our neighbour\u2026. But St John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us” (1 John 4:10).\u00a0 “We love because God first loved us” (1John 4:19).\u00a0 This is the source of our joy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Happiness is conditional: it depends on good fortune, pleasant surroundings, congenial friends, a good digestion\u2026. But joy is unconditional.\u00a0 It depends on nothing.\u00a0 You can even experience joy in times of unhappiness.\u00a0 It is like a ray of sunshine that suddenly penetrates the clouds, a reminder that it is always there, whether you see it or not.\u00a0 Such is God’s love.\u00a0 Even when we are at our worst, God still loves us.\u00a0 “God loved us when we were not, and when we were His foes,” said Meister Eckhart.\u00a0 “Whether we go near or far, God never goes far away but always stands nearby; and even if He cannot remain within, He never goes further than outside the door.”\u00a0 There is an Irish proverb, Is gaire cabhair D\u00e9 n\u00e1 an doras, <\/em>“God’s help is nearer than the door.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Fr Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie Jn 3:14-21\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cJust as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. \u00a0For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4919"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8145,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4919\/revisions\/8145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}