A Commentary and Reflection on the Readings for the Fourth Sunday in Lent – Year B. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23, Ephesians 2:4-10, John 3:14-24.
The Liturgy of the Catholic Mass is for Receiving and Sharing Marpē
Today’s readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent are a powerful reminder that God does not give up on us, and because our Creator does not give up on us, we have no right not to cooperate with Him, helping us in this journey; and the liturgy of the Catholic Mass is the best evidence we have of God is actively engaged in not giving up on finishing the work He began in us by bringing us home.
In today’s First Reading from 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23, the text reads, “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. Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.” Here, the Hebrew word for ‘remedy’ is marpē,’ which means a healing cure. The Book of Proverbs uses the word ‘marpē’ more than any other book and in various ways, such as in Proverbs 13:17, saying ‘A wicked messenger falls into mischief; but a faithful ambassador is ‘marpē’;” meaning a healer. Also, Proverbs 15:4 says, “A ‘marpē’ tongue is a tree of life: but perverse tongue breaks the spirit.”
The Lord’s anger had become inflamed against His people for going from bad to worse. The seed of faith had died and could not be healed through itself or by means according to its own ability. I think that is a point that many of us may have been at some point in our lives after we had made such a shipwreck of our lives that there was nothing we could do to fix it on our own. So God, who does not give up on us, even on those who have given up on themselves by going from bad to worse, steps in, and in the instant case, even used a foreign King, Cyrus, king of Persia who ruled over the Jews during their exile, whom himself was an enemy of the one true God; a worshipper the Babylonian pagan god Marduk,[1] to ‘marpē’ His people by returning them to Him; sending them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Therefore, even in exile, we recognize the relationship between healing and worship, as well as proper worship and the right relationship with God early on. In other words, God heals us through our participation in right and true liturgical worship of Him.
However, the end is not worship but living out what we have gained from worship. That is to say that we were not created to stay in worship because we were not created just for God but for each other. For this reason, the Apostle Paul, in today’s Second Reading from Ephesians 2:4-10 reminds the Church that God did not give up on them, even when they went from bad to worse, writing, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved,” but saved for what? Here, Paul connects our created purpose with our salvific mission, writing, “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” What the Apostle wrote is a transformative teaching and way to understand liturgical participation in the Mass and the world; that we who are ‘marpē’ in Christ, healed in Christ, and healed for the work of healing. Saint Paul redresses Proverbs 13:17, calling us ambassadors of ‘marpē’ more clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:20, where he writes, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.” That is, He who has healed us heals through us, and in this way, God can love on His people through His servants rather than through His enemies.
In today’s Gospel Reading from John 3:14-21, Jesus also plays on how God demonstrated His love and mercy to us at times, bringing about ‘marpē’ through things that we thought were here to harm us; telling 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.” Yes! If God can heal through a dangerous serpent in the desert and through someone as distant from God as Cyrus to bring about ‘marpē,’ how much more can He do through His only beloved and begotten Son, Christ Jesus? “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. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
It is common for us to become acutely aware of our capacity to go from bad to worse during Lent. We commonly become disappointed in ourselves for neglecting some details of our fasting and penance. The world will always go from bad to worse because the light came into it, “but people preferred darkness to light because their works were evil.” Their works were evil because they rejected their created purpose of being healed by Christ and being His healing ambassadors. You have heard it said that hurt people hurt people, and sick people make others sick. These sayings are true, but it has not stopped the fact that God has created stations of ‘marpē’ all around the world, where His Son comes to bring ‘marpē’ through the sacraments so that we might leave the Mass and share that ‘marpē.’ Through the Catholic Mass, from the rising of the sun to its setting, God never stops speaking to us, He never stops having mercy on us, He never stops sharing Himself with us, and He never stops sending us with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit out into the world to bring ‘marpē.’ Therefore, do not give up on the mission because the mission has not given up on you.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
The Liturgical Sense of the Readings at Mass, by David L. Gray
[1] See also: The Liturgy Teaches Us Who Created Us and Why He Created Us (29th Sunday of Ordinary Time) – Year A | Saint Dominic’s Media (saintdominicsmedia.com), and The Liturgy of the Mass is the Hope of Parousia and Anemeno Fulfilled (First Sunday of Advent – Year B) | Saint Dominic’s Media (saintdominicsmedia.com)
