In the Gospel for this coming Sunday, March 10, we have what many writers tell us is one of the most poetic and beautiful lines in the Christian Scriptures: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This line is also deep in theological meaning and begs several questions of the ordinary reader.
For instance, many people ask that if God loves us and loved his Son so much why did he allow the rejection of Jesus’s message followed by the savage beating and death of Jesus?
The mind reels at the thought of a desperate love torn with the swords of hate and ignominy. Was God a masochist to allow this? How can he love his Son and watch him die this way?
God would not be God to interfere by controlling any choice of evil through humans. Our free wills and our souls exist so that we may choose God—in goodness, simplicity, and our sometimes frail love. God sent Jesus to teach us about God and to attract us to his benevolence for us, his deep love for us and that means everybody but especially those who are oppressed by others. Jesus crafted a message that came straight from the Hebrew Scriptures, and he delivered it in his first sermon in the synagogue beginning his life’s ministry. “Give comfort to my people…This is the fasting I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, freeing the oppressed,” (Isaiah 58). God wanted this message to stir hearts into action. Some became believers and would do this; some would choose not to do it. Some would hear it as hope, and some would hear it as a threat. But it wasn’t a threat. In God’s mind it was a promissory note of love.
Thus began the ministry of God’s message through Jesus who, in turn, went among the people as a liberator enacting this message. Jesus knew he would be challenged by the hierarchy of his faith, most of whom were complacent with their positions of power and their extraction of resources from the large masses of the poor. They would do anything to keep their wealth and security intact. Jesus knew that he would also be challenged by Roman power which wanted to appease the tedious lot of the Jewish leaders. They made every effort to quell the increasing restlessness Jesus’s message was causing. What Jesus did not know until the evil plans against him began emerging, was that he would become a victim of these two communities of hate: religious and political. Jesus was not a soothsayer; he did not have a crystal ball. But he knew the human heart and he knew he would suffer something but that something became clear only as he realized the immensity of the hatred and rejection he was working against.
But none of this diminished God’s love for the world and all human beings. Writer and theologian, Bruce Vawter says that “though alienated from God, the world is not evil in itself and remains the object of divine compassion. He gave his only Son.” Vawter concludes that, “The only explanation we shall ever have of the gift of eternal life made possible for us in the redemption achieved by Christ is the incredible love of God for the world.” That Jesus, his Son, died living this truth, makes it possible for us to earn eternal life if we live as Christ did.
Reflection
We now have an example of how to live our lives. According to William Barclay, we must live as Christ did if we are Christians, this “means Christ is the atmosphere in which you live. You never forget the presence of Christ—you always remember he is with you.” That is because God gave Christ to us for “he so loved the world.” Always remember this: God loved his precious creation and loved us, his precious people so much that he wanted us to choose him, to come to him and thus he gave us his Son to show us how to do this.
- It might help you to read this Gospel selection before your weekly Mass. And even to read it again several times after.
- Pray for a greater understanding that God loved us so much that he wanted us to accept him and to become better, holier people by following his Son’s example.
That’s what Lent is for—to find the footsteps Jesus took, to study him, like the ‘telescopic’ Jesus in a more focused way, and to understand that God so loved this world as to send his Son to us.
It’s still not too late to read an excellent book or two for Lent. I suggest:
Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin, SJ Discovering Jesus by William Barclay Come Forth by James Martin, SJ Jesus of Nazareth by Gerhard Lohfink
And remember to do something special to make Lent meaningful. You will make your Easter and your spring days fuller, lovelier. You might become dazzled!
Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled– to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery.
Excerpt of “The Ponds” from House of Light by Mary Oliver
In All Things Charity 
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