FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT –
(LAETARE SUNDAY)
Ø
The
fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday for the first words of
the antiphon or verse at the beginning of the mass. It says Laetare
Jerusalem ” that is Rejoice Jerusalem.
Ø This verse is taken from the Third
Isaiah 66,10-11
Ø We are invited to rejoice because
Easter is near, and the Lenten journey is halfway through.
Ø Let the Word of our God surround and
transform us.
THE
BOOK OF JOSHUAH
v The
book of Joshua is found after the book of Deuteronomy
v
It is essential to
complete the story of the Pentateuch
v
It is, we might say,
the proof of the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers.
v
The people have
already entered the promised land and celebrated the first Passover with the
fruits of the land and the manna, that had fed the people during their journey
through the desert, ceased from this moment on.
v
The promised land is
given with a condition to continue having it, fidelity.
v We could say many things about this reality, compare it to our earthly life in which the Eucharist nourishes us until our entry into the true promised land, the house of our Father God, which we call heaven.
FIRST
READING Jos 5, 9a.
10-12
v
The people of
Israel have traveled
the desert,
wandered, nomadic for
40 years,
now they
have already
entered or are
entering the land
that was
promised to the
fathers.
v
They are on
the plain
of Jericho.
v
Jericho was already
a prosperous
and beautiful city. Attractive city
for its
fountains and palm
trees. How those men and women, who had
spent a lifetime seeing
only desert
sands and
looking for oases
to rest,
must have admired the beauty of this place.
v
Abraham, the first
to receive
the promise,
never saw
this land,
he had
his doubts,
he asked,
but as
Paul says
he believed
in the
word that
the God,
he had
not known
until then,
had given
him.
v
Your offspring, not
him, but
his offspring
would own
the land.
v
One commentator says,
Israel understood the
value of
this gift,
the land,
and the
demand for "faithfulness"
when it
lost the
land in the exile to Babylon.
v The reading says that the manna ceased once they had the
first crop in the promised land.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps. 34, 2-3. 4-5. 6-7
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
ü In the first stanza we
bless the Lord, I want that his praise be always in my mouth. Hearing me, the poor
will be glad .
ü Now in the second stanza I invite these poor and all to
glorify the Lord, because I sought in and he answered and delivered me from all
my fears. From what has the Lord delivered you ? What are your fears?
ü The last invitation is to look at him, at our Lord and joy
will invade us, and there will be no more shame for us, no more suffering
because He has saved us.
ü Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
SECOND READING – Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
§
Paul
speaks about reconciliation
o
We are in Christ because we have
been reconciliated and thus we are a new creation, because the old world is
gone.
o
God has given to all of us the
ministry of reconciliation, depositing in us the word of reconciliation. The
word is Christ, the Incarnate Son.
o
Paul says that we are ambassadors of
Christ, the ambassador speaks in the name of the one who sents him.
o
Because he who did not know sin, God
made him “sin” for us, so that united to him, we may receive the salvation of
God and thus become just and saints.
o
Let us reflect and meditate in
prayer on this last sentence from the letter of Paul.
GOSPEL– LK 15:1-3,11-32)
Luke in chapter 15 of his Gospel
narrates three parables which we find exclusively in this gospel.
They are called the parables of
mercy.
In the first verses of this chapter
Luke tells us that Jesus says these parables in response to what the Pharisees
and Scribes think and say “he welcomes sinners and eats with them”
The parable of the prodigal son
which we could call the parable of the good Father, narrates the story of a
family situation that might happen anywhere. A son who does not feel happy at home, thus he
asks his father to give the part of the inheritance which will be his after his
father’s death and leaves home.
The father does not oppose this petition of
his younger son and gives it to him, knowing that he will do a bad use of
it.
The younger son leaves home happy
with money and time in front of him. Now he will be able to do what pleases him,
he will have lots of money and many friends.
After spending his fortune with
prostitutes and bad friends, he is left alone without anything and hungry.
He has to work in very bad
conditions and, in this extreme situation, when he is completely destroyed, he
has time to think about his father, he is homesick.
How well my father treated his
workers and still better his sons, and he decides to return home.
Probably he fights against this idea
or inner invitation that God, our Good Father makes to him, and finally he decides
to follow this inner voice, he gets up and go.
His father who has been waiting for
him since the first day, sees him and runs to meet him. He sees him dirty,
tattered, with signs of suffering and humiliation, and feels compassion and a
great tenderness.
He does not allow him to finish his
confession, quickly bring the tunic, the sandals, the ring, all the sings of
his sonship… because he is his son, he is not an employee.
Forgiveness is total, it is the joy
not only of the one who is forgiven, but of the Father and the angels in heaven,
because a sinner has returned home. And there is feast not only in heaven but
on earth in the house of this lucky son to have such a good and merciful father.
A father who does not reproach him,
but welcomes him, because he has enough reproach with his humiliation and
suffering.
The party begins, why did the party
start before the other son arrived? We
do not know.
When the eldest son who is working
in the fields returns, he is surprised by the music, dance, party and much more.
They tell him that his brother has returned. His brother who wasted all his inheritance,
the money that the father and him (the eldest brother) had to work so hard and
sacrifice to have it.
The eldest son feels, rancor and
abandoned by the love of his father who has never said a word of recognition
for his work.
However, the father has never
thought that he had to recognize his
work, his fidelity, because as he says “everything mine is yours”, but the son
says “so many years I have been serving you and you have never made me feel
that you love me…”
Who knows why Jesus told the parable?
Besides what he said maybe he wanted
each one of us to reflect and meditate on our own life and on our
relationships.
The sadness is that the eldest, because of his anger, is
deprived of enjoying the joy of his father and also of his younger brother. Let
us not allow this to happen to us. Let's talk, let's talk, let's clarify
situations in our family and more intimate relationships to find a common point
where we can agree and start over.
CLARETIAN CORNER
MOTHER
FOUNDRESS
This short notice but compendious, without withdrawing a single point
from the rule that the Lord was commanding me to write, filled my heart and
soul with a holy joy, so much so that for a long while I could not control my
tears, seeing the great work that the Lord was to perform. In these few words that His Divine Majesty
told me, he made me understand so many and great things about this holy soul,
that as if I was out of myself. I think I loss the bodily senses, while the
powers of the soul were occupied in admiring what the grace of God can do in a
soul. I saw or understood, I do not know how to explain it, our Lord left to
the judgment of his soul the interests of the church and as if of him depended
to put to practice the Evangelical Law, and it seem to me that his Divine
Majesty was telling him, “ I have given you grace for that “ I understood that
this was very special grace that God bestowed only to the holy Apostles, and I
saw that our Lord Jesus Christ was requesting it from him in a way that I do not know how to explain.[1]
PADRE FUNDADOR
When I was ten years old, I was allowed to make my First Communion. Words
cannot tell what I felt on that day when I had the unequaled joy of receiving
my good Jesus into my heart for the first time. From then on I always
frequented the sacraments of Penance and Communion, but how fervently and with
what devotion and love: more than now--yes, more than now, I must say to my
embarrassment and shame. Now that I know so much more than I did then, now that
the many benefits I have received since then have accumulated continually, in
gratitude I should have become a seraph of love, whereas God knows what I am.
When I compare my early years with the present, I grow sad and tearfully
confess that I am a monster of ingratitude.[2]
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