Fourth Sunday Of Lent
The two books of the Old Testament known as I and II Chronicles are relatively unknown to Catholic Christians. They were probably never considered of great importance as even their name indicates in older English translation Bibles. That name: Paralipomenon – an English transliteration of a Greek participle basically meaning “Leftovers.” These books are two of several revision-books of the Old Testament. Examples: Deuteronomy (Second Law) revises parts of Exodus. Chronicles revise the Books of Samuel and Kings. Later Prophets revise earlier Prophets. An example of the latter: Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares….” That was late eighth century B.C. The Prophet Joel, early fourth century B.C., speaking to a very different situation, says this, “Beat your plowshares into swords….”
Our first reading for this Sunday is from Second Chronicles. The date of composition of Chronicles is sometime between 500-400 B.C. The authors or editors are looking backward to the sad history of the People of God, Jerusalem, and the temple of the Lord a century or two before the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took many of the people into exile in Babylon (today Iraq). It is a depressing reading. The rulers, the priests, the people engaged in idolatrous worship even in the temple itself. They ridiculed the prophets the Lord sent to warn them. Finally, the Lord’s anger spilled over. The temple, the palace, and the city walls were burned and demolished. The people became slaves to the Babylonians. But that was not the end. About 540 B.C. the Lord arranged for King Cyrus of Persia to defeat the Babylonians. Then he inspired Cyrus to end the exile and provide the means for rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem.
The authors of Chronicles blamed the historical disasters of the People of God on idolatry and violating the Sabbath rest. Their point of view is legitimate but also incomplete. They ignored political pressure from all sides on the small Kingdom of Judah, personal ambition of a segment of the population, a society rotten to the core, which claimed loyalty to God and the Covenant but was living a lie. A lesson we might draw from this reading is that all history is under God’s dominion. God can bring good out of evil, so there is always hope. Good to keep this in mind when our young people are sent into wars and shed their blood for causes not that clear. The Responsorial Psalm (137) is a lament by the exiles over the ruin of Jerusalem, “By the streams of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion (the hill on which the temple had been built).” The people’s response, “Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you (Jerusalem).”
The second reading is from the Letter to the Ephesians. This letter celebrates the triumph of Christ and the unearned mercy of God which arranged for us to share in that triumph, “…brought us to life with Christ, raised us up with him, seated us with him in the heavens.” Twice the author notes, “by grace, you have been saved” and adds to the second statement, “through faith.” Then the insistence, “This (being saved by grace through faith) is not from you, but a gift from God, not from works, so that no one may boast.” That, of course, is but one New Testament theology. It must be pointed out that Paul never wrote, “saved by faith alone,” despite Luther’s translation of Romans 3:28, where he added the word alone. When confronted with the fact that Paul did not write “alone,” Luther replied, “He should have!” The Letter of James 2:14-18, Philippians 2:12-13 and Matthew 25:31-46 comprise an answer to Luther’s mistranslation of Romans 3:28.
The gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from an extension of a dialogue between Jesus and one of the V.I.P.s in Jerusalem, Nicodemus. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jews in religious and some civil matters. The dialogue contains the famous statements about “being born again” or “born from above.” That was earlier. Today’s gospel begins with a very important reference to the Old Testament, “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.” The reference is to an incident in Numbers 21:5-9. It happens during the years of exodus from Egypt. The Israelites are in rebellion against Moses. By this time the Lord had about all he could stomach of their grumbling. He sent fiery serpents among them. These bit the people. Many died. Then an attitude adjustment! They approach Moses to ask for relief. By the Lord’s instruction Moses cast a bronze serpent, lifted it high on a pole. The afflicted who looked up at the serpent on the pole were cured. This incident would have occurred about 1300 B.C.
To understand John’s catechesis in citing this incident, we go first to the author of the Old Testament Book of Wisdom 16:5-12, about 50 B.C. He gives a new interpretation to this incident. For this unknown author, the bronze serpent on the pole was a symbol of the Torah (the teachings of the Lord through Moses). Wisdom’s author writes, “Whoever turned to it (the Torah) was saved not by what he looked at, but by you the universal Savior.” In the first chapter of John’s gospel, the author proclaimed Jesus the ultimate and perfect Torah, when he wrote, “The Torah was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” With this background from the Old Testament and Chapter One of the gospel, John’s catechesis is this:
When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, he is not only a symbol of the Torah, (the words and Word of God), but he is the Universal Savior. Those who look up at him lifted up on the cross, in the sense of believing in him as Savior, they will be saved. This proves God’s love for the world, as the author writes in today’s gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
