Daily Retreat 03/18/07
2007 Mar 18 SUN: FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT.
Jos 5: 9a. 10-12/ Ps 33(34): 2-3. 4-5. 6-7 (9a) / 2 Cor 5: 17-21/ Lk 15: 1-3. 11-32
From today’s readings: “While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month.... Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.... We implore you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God!... But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. ”
A Reason to Rejoice
The fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of particular celebration and rejoicing! Think for a minute about particular occasions of celebration: the end of an ordeal (such as a war or semester exams), promise of a new brighter future (such as a promotion, or a new house), various recurring milestones in life (such as birthdays and anniversaries), reunion with family and friends, commemoration of a great past event (Christmas, Independence Day), or in honor of a great achievement (graduation or winning a competition). Also, don’t forget one of the best reasons to celebrate: simply in order to chase away dulldrums with the zest of festivity!
Each of these occasions is, in itself, a good reason for celebration and rejoicing, but our Laetare liturgy today takes all of those reasons and occasions together, and so our Sunday sacramental celebration is to be joyful and grand, not woeful and bland!
Like the Israelites in the Book of Joshua who pass over at last to the end of their 40 year ordeal of wandering in the desert, and are finally nourished by foods from the promised land, so you and I this day are presented with the marvelous opportunity to cease forever our wanderings from the ways of the Lord, and to be nourished by the Eucharistic pledge, to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” His own Body and Soul feeding our body and soul for all the ages!
The anniversary of the Resurrection of the Lord is celebrated on Easter Sunday, but even as we look to that capstone of feasts, since the joy of that monument of victories, the conquest of sin and death, would overwhelm any merely yearly anniversary, on this very Sunday too, you and I find ourselves on the Lord’s Day, the weekly recurring solemnity of His Resurrection and the confirmation of His promise that those baptized into His life and His passion, those who fully unite themselves to Him, will share fully in His Resurrection too, for “whoever is in Christ is a new creation!”
Before coming together for the sacred reunion, not as strangers, but as friends and members of God’s family, we turn to God in confession, answering Paul and all those other accredited ambassadors of Christ, all of us priests who fulfill their holy orders in imploring you on behalf of Christ: “Be reconciled to God! and be reconciled to His whole family!” What are you waiting for? Whatever it is that once estranged us, however prodigal you and I may have been in the past, no matter how wearied and starved our sins and burdens have made us, the moment we come to our senses and turn back to our Father, our loving, compassionate, forgiving Father runs to meet us with His Word of welcome, embracing us in His mercy and kissing us with His sacraments! The filthy rags of our transgression He casts away when His Grace richly robes us in confession or anoints us in sickness, weakness, and depression!
He blesses us with the Sign of the Cross, so that sacramental becomes once again our own signet ring to mark and seal ourselves with every day, each time we pray. Yes, for His Grace gives wings to our feet, so that we may rush evermore to Him alone and to His Heavenly nuptial feast, the rapturous, ecstatic, unending wedding banquet of the Lamb, the eternal Laetare in the celestial Jerusalem of the great and almighty I AM!
Jos 5: 9a. 10-12/ Ps 33(34): 2-3. 4-5. 6-7 (9a) / 2 Cor 5: 17-21/ Lk 15: 1-3. 11-32
From today’s readings: “While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month.... Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.... We implore you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God!... But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. ”
A Reason to Rejoice
The fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of particular celebration and rejoicing! Think for a minute about particular occasions of celebration: the end of an ordeal (such as a war or semester exams), promise of a new brighter future (such as a promotion, or a new house), various recurring milestones in life (such as birthdays and anniversaries), reunion with family and friends, commemoration of a great past event (Christmas, Independence Day), or in honor of a great achievement (graduation or winning a competition). Also, don’t forget one of the best reasons to celebrate: simply in order to chase away dulldrums with the zest of festivity!
Each of these occasions is, in itself, a good reason for celebration and rejoicing, but our Laetare liturgy today takes all of those reasons and occasions together, and so our Sunday sacramental celebration is to be joyful and grand, not woeful and bland!
Like the Israelites in the Book of Joshua who pass over at last to the end of their 40 year ordeal of wandering in the desert, and are finally nourished by foods from the promised land, so you and I this day are presented with the marvelous opportunity to cease forever our wanderings from the ways of the Lord, and to be nourished by the Eucharistic pledge, to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” His own Body and Soul feeding our body and soul for all the ages!
The anniversary of the Resurrection of the Lord is celebrated on Easter Sunday, but even as we look to that capstone of feasts, since the joy of that monument of victories, the conquest of sin and death, would overwhelm any merely yearly anniversary, on this very Sunday too, you and I find ourselves on the Lord’s Day, the weekly recurring solemnity of His Resurrection and the confirmation of His promise that those baptized into His life and His passion, those who fully unite themselves to Him, will share fully in His Resurrection too, for “whoever is in Christ is a new creation!”
Before coming together for the sacred reunion, not as strangers, but as friends and members of God’s family, we turn to God in confession, answering Paul and all those other accredited ambassadors of Christ, all of us priests who fulfill their holy orders in imploring you on behalf of Christ: “Be reconciled to God! and be reconciled to His whole family!” What are you waiting for? Whatever it is that once estranged us, however prodigal you and I may have been in the past, no matter how wearied and starved our sins and burdens have made us, the moment we come to our senses and turn back to our Father, our loving, compassionate, forgiving Father runs to meet us with His Word of welcome, embracing us in His mercy and kissing us with His sacraments! The filthy rags of our transgression He casts away when His Grace richly robes us in confession or anoints us in sickness, weakness, and depression!
He blesses us with the Sign of the Cross, so that sacramental becomes once again our own signet ring to mark and seal ourselves with every day, each time we pray. Yes, for His Grace gives wings to our feet, so that we may rush evermore to Him alone and to His Heavenly nuptial feast, the rapturous, ecstatic, unending wedding banquet of the Lamb, the eternal Laetare in the celestial Jerusalem of the great and almighty I AM!
posted by FrPitstick | 3/16/2007
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