Lesson for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (B)

The Meaning of the Love of God

My dear brother and sisters in Christ. In today's first reading we heard that God allow the ancient Jews to return to Jerusalem after their exile. Why did God allow that happened?

They were the ones who had been unfaithful to his friendship. They had started worshipping other gods, breaking the commandments, and disobeying God's prophets. They "mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets."

That's ungrateful. And because of their sin, they suffered the consequences - they were conquered and exiled by the Babylonians; sin always does damage, both to us and to those around us. And while they were in exile, many of them completely forgot about God and his promises - as today's Psalm implies.

But even in the face of this colossal ingratitude, God still didn't give up on them. He sent them more prophets to give them hope. He promised to restore them. And when the time was right, he did restore them. He brought his unworthy people back to Jerusalem and allowed them to rebuild the Temple, a sign of lasting peace and prosperity.

Why? Why would he be so unreasonable? Because God's love, God's fidelity, God's mercy doesn't depend on our worthiness. He doesn't love us because we are perfect; he perfects us because he loves us.

This is the Good News of today's Gospel: "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." St Paul gets even more explicit in today's Second Reading.

He points out that our salvation is a "grace" - the Greek word refers to a lovely gift, not something we earn or deserve. He writes: "God ... because of the great love he had for us ... even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ." We are too used to this word, "love." Today, let's refresh our appreciation for what it really means.

The First Two Loves: Natural Affection and Eros

The New Testament was written in Greek, not English. And Greek has at least four different words for the single English word "love." They all imply some kind of bond, connection, attraction, and appreciation between someone who loves and something or someone that is loved, but each one has a different shade of meaning.

The first and most basic word for love in ancient Greek is "storge" [STORE-gay]. It means natural affection, the bond that we feel because of some natural connection.

This affection can be sweet and superficial, as in the affection we feel for a favourite ice cream or for a favourite pet. Or it can go very deep, as in the bond we feel naturally with members of our family. Even when siblings, for example, are estranged from each other for many years, there is still a unique bond between them, a natural connection or affection. This type of natural affection doesn't really come up very much in the Bible.

The second Ancient Greek word for love is "eros" [AIR-ohss]. This is the kind of love we talk about when we say that someone has "fallen in love." This is the kind of passionate feeling that carries us away and fills us with intense and seemingly uncontrollable emotions. It can refer to the passion that leads two people to become romantically involved. Or it can refer to the passion that artists feel for their art or even that diehard sportsmen feel for their sport.

The common denominator here is that the passionate feeling tends to carry us away, even leading us to become unreasonable and imprudent. It doesn't have to, but in a fallen world it tends to. We need God's grace to help us channel and govern these passions in a fruitful, beautiful way. This word only appears twice in the Bible, both times in the Old Testament.

Love #3 - Friendship

The third ancient Greek word for love is "philia" [FEEL-ee-yuh]. This word was used to describe a bond formed when two people share a common interest or ideal. It was used most often to refer to friendship.

Instead of being based on instinctual affection or passionate intoxication, it was based on a conscious awareness and decision to share one's interests with another person. The key characteristic here is that the two friends who share this kind of love are equals.

"Philia" was not usually used to describe the relationship between a father and son, for example, or between a master and a beloved slave - they were not equals. This word does appear in the New Testament. It is used when Jesus says to his disciples at the Last Supper: "I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father" (John 15:15).

God's grace not only forgives our sins, but it elevates us; it makes us like him. Imagine if we could give our favorite pet the ability to talk, laugh, and interact with us on a human level.

Well, God has done that with us. Dog nature is inferior to human nature, and human nature is inferior to divine nature. But God in his goodness and through his grace has elevated our human nature and made us partakers in the divine nature. We are friends of Christ.

And so, the infused theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), when we develop them, enable us to see ourselves, the world, and others as Christ does, to think of them as he does.

Love #4: Self-forgetfulness

The fourth word for love in ancient Greek is used far more frequently in the Bible than all the others combined. It is "agape" [ah-GAH-pay], sometimes translated as "charity." Perhaps a better translation is "Christ-like love," since he revealed its meaning to us by his life, death, and resurrection. This is the word used in today's Readings: "God so loved the world... because of the great love he had for us." This is also the word used when Jesus gives his New Commandment at the Last Supper: "love one another as I have loved you."

What is the core meaning of Self-forgetfulness? This is the love that focuses on doing good to others, serving them, helping them in their needs, regardless of how I feel about them or what I might get in return.

This is generous love, sacrificial love, self-giving love. This is the love of Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem, in the desert, and on the cross.... pouring out his life not because doing so filled him with ecstasy, but because we needed him to do it, because he wanted to restore hope to our sinful hearts and lead us back from our sinful exile into the Father's house.

When St John in his First Letter writes, "God is love," this is the word he uses. God is completely self-forgetful, completely focused on our good, happiness, and fulfillment. That's why he created us: not for his happiness, but for ours.

That's why he forgives us as often as we need to be forgiven. That's why he feeds us with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. That's why he carries our crosses with us, never leaving us to suffer alone. And since we were created in God's image, this God who is love, we will find the fulfillment we yearn for as we gradually learn to love in this same self-forgetful, Christ-like way.

Conclusion: Spreading the Sunrise

God's love for each of us is personal, active, unconditional and unlimited, and the crucifix proves it. And today the Church is reminding us of that. After three weeks of Lenten penance, when we have been reminded of our sins and selfishness (the bad news), it is time to remember that it is precisely because of those sins and selfishness that Christ came to earth to save us (the Good News).

That's the reason this Sunday is called "Laetare Sunday," the Sunday of Rejoicing ["Laetare" is the first word of the entrance antiphon in Latin]. That's the reason we wear rose-coloured vestments today. Just as the horizon begins to brighten and turn a pale pink as the sun starts to rise after a long, dark night, so the love of God in Christ pierces the darkness of sin and sends the shadows of evil fleeing the bright light of eternal day.

Today as Christ renews his unconditional love for us in this holy Mass, and especially as we receive him in Holy Communion, let's thank him for these gifts. And let's ask him for the grace not only to experience his love, but to share that experience with others, especially those who are still living in darkness.

This week, may our active, Christ-like love be like a sunrise in their hearts, giving them hope and drawing them towards the saving fountain God's grace.