YEAR C: HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF LENT
HOMILY THEME: INVITATION TO BE JOYFUL
BY: Fr. Cyril Unachukwu CCE
HOMILY: In the midst of our progress in this Season of Lent through the practice of the Lenten disciplines of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, and of course accompanied by the fundamental and necessary penitential disposition which this season ordinarily implies, the Church invites us to a moment of joy. Joy because we know that our journey with Christ in His sorrowful mysteries will surely end in praise and because God our Father, in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and through the power of His ever present Spirit, is always open-armed to restore us to the dignity of grace. May this atmosphere of joy consolidate our hope, keep us firm in our journey of faith and in the practice of charity; Amen.
The Fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally called Laetare Sunday taken from the first word of the Entrance antiphone “Laetare Ierusalem – Rejoice Jerusalem.” The invitation to be joyful is liturgically shown in the colour rose which is worn today by priests and deacons at mass and with which the altar is decorated. The colour rose in the liturgical tradition of the Church is understood to be “a lighter version of violet, because today the penitential violet is mixed with the white of the approaching festival.” This is to say that today, we are invited to have a foretaste of the joy of the approaching paschal festivities. This theme of joy is manifest in the First Reading of today (Joshua 5:9-12) which narrates to us the initial experiences of the people of Israel in the Promised Land. First was a serene feeling of freedom which was stolen from them in the land of Egypt and the shame which that condition implies. God speaking to them through Joshua announced to them that “today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.” To live under the condition of slavery is to be devoid of joy. On the other hand, the journey to the Promised Land was never without its tension resulting from the disobedience and insubordination of the people of Israel. The entrance into it was a moment of great joy and celebration as was seen in their First Passover Feast and from that moment “the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.” This signals their final habitation of the land flowing with milk and honey and of their disconnection from the sorrow and sadness of their experience in Egypt to the joy and gracefulness of being settled by God.
The joy in the midst of the Israelites because of the restoration of their pride as a nation by God is comparable to the joy of the prodigal son who was restored to the household where he belongs after losing everything that constituted his dignity as a legitimate son of his father because of his wayward living and squanderous spending. In the Gospel Reading (15:1-3, 11-32), we read once more the story of this man which recaptures in every way our story and history with God. Out of carelessness, ignorance and over-estimation of our potentials, we destroy every content of our inheritance from God like the prodigal son. We place ourselves in a situation of lack and shame and self-imposed slavery even to the length of dwelling in the abode of pigs understood to be the most-unholy of places. But God, out of His love and mercy and knowing how miserable our condition is, opens wide His arms to a merciful embrace which changes our past, transforms our present and keeps us focused on the future He has in store for us. This was the story of the Israelites! This was the story of the prodigal son! And surely this is our story! The sight of this divine encounter and operation in our lives collectively (as is seen in the people of Israel) and individually (as is seen in the prodigal son) on the dawn of Easter is the reason for the joy in us today. The joy that flows from our sight of the imminent work of re-creation by God at Easter because, in the words of the Second Reading (2 Cor 5:17-21), “for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work.” He never ceases to work in our midst! Ours is to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” In tasting we become certain and contented with the quality of the object of our hope! In seeing we are renewed in and refilled with hope for the glory that is to be revealed! And in joy, we approach this glory with an unwavering spirit!
May this joy bubbling in our hearts from the light of the approaching Easter glory sustain us to a meritorious end of the Lenten observances we have begun; Amen.
Happy Sunday;
Fr Cyril UNACHUKWU CCE
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