Lent Week 4 2022: Nicodemus visits Jesus
Loving Creator of mine,
I feel the pace quicken, the time draw near.
I am filled with joy as I move toward Easter
and the promised reconciliation with you.
Teach me to follow the example of your Son,
to be worthy of being called one his people:
a Christian.
Help me to live each day as he did
turning hatred to love and conflict to peace.
I await the new life with eagerness, faith
and a deep gratitude.
Psalm 136
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept,
remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there
we hung up our harps.
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
For it was there that they asked us,
our captors, for songs,
our oppressors, for joy.
‘Sing to us,’ they said,
‘one of Zion’s songs.’
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
O how could we sing
the song of the Lord
on alien soil
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
O let my tongue
cleave to my mouth
if I remember you not,
if I prize not Jerusalem
above all my joys!
O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!
Gospel John 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be condemned;
but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,
because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.
On these grounds is sentence pronounced:
that though the light has come into the world
men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed;
Fr. Micheál's Reflection
For many years Croke Park matches always had a John 3:16 sign in the crowd behind the goal at Hill 16.
It was hoisted aloft especially after a score and captured by the cameras to be seen all over the world.
This was one man’s way of proclaiming to all the outstanding truth of God’s love for everyone, everywhere.
The standard bearer was a man of modest means who spent his time and money spreading this great news at big sporting events, because one day his life changed completely.
He was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that he was loved by a God just as the quotation says.
He described the experience as being ” born again” and wanted everybody to know just how much God loved them. He realised for the first time that for God there was no price too high to pay to save people from destructive and futile lives and so the man from Limerick lifted up his sign, John 3;16 for all to see.
Nicodemus came at night furtively and fearfully to see Jesus .
After being told about the necessity of being ” born again” he heard the wonderful words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. Nicodemus didn’t realise the future cost to Jesus of being “lifted up”.
We know it had two meanings, first the horror of being raised up to die a horrible death on the cross to be followed by the triumph of being raised from the dead.
Such is God’s love for us all to save us from the darkness of despair, greed , and hate and bring us into the light of God’s own life of truth and love.
St. Paul describes it as a gift freely given which cannot be earned.
But it is a gift which can be spurned as Jesus tells us.
God will never refuse his mercy but we are in the awesome position of rejecting God’s gift
and thus condemning ourselves.
Our lived experience suggests that many people today are choosing to ignore the gracious invitation of God with the terrible consequences we witness all over the world.
The recurring wars, violence, man-made famines and destruction of the environment show us human beings destroying themselves and the planet.
We all need to be “born again”. We need to gaze on Jesus lifted up on the cross. On Good Friday we will reverently kiss the cross during the solemn ceremonies. We should have a cross in a prominent position in our home and wear one or carry one in our pocket. The wonderful truth of John 3;16 is for each of us.
Prayer of St Anslem
O my God, teach my heart where and how to seek You,
where and how to find You.
You are my God and You are my all and I have never seen You.
You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know You.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek You.
I cannot seek You unless You teach me
or find You unless You show Yourself to me.
Let me seek You in my desire,
let me desire You in my seeking.
Let me find You by loving You,
let me love You when I find You.
Amen.
The Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.