Fourth Sunday of Lent

Here are the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 18, 2012:

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23
Psalm 137: 1-6
Ephesians 2: 4-10
John 3: 14-21

You know the feeling: you're walking along and trip over a blade of grass or walk into a doorway- not enough to injure anything but your pride... and you look around to make sure no one noticed. And you know that sinking feeling, when you've said something you shouldn't and you can only hope that it doesn't go any further. Or even that panic at work when you've made a mistake in a crucial area, and can only hope that no one notices, or someone else gets the blame. Multiply that by the times when you have seriousness sinned, and I bet you can relate to these sentences from the Gospel:

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

We've messed up. By all accounts, we deserve punishment and derision. And yet, we know that Jesus did not come to condemn us, mock us, make us squirm under the glaring lamp of the interrogation room. Jesus came out of love for us. To show us how to live in the freedom that comes from being in a right and honest relationship with God. And any squirming is self-imposed, from our recognition of our imperfections, paired with a desire to please the God Whom we love, Who first loved us.

God's love is freely offered to us-- that powerful love is what we call grace.

• When and how are you reluctant to accept God's love?
• What happens when you do?

The Catechumenate this Sunday will talk about grace and prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation.