Readings: 2 Chr. 36:14-16; Eph. 2:4-10; Jn. 3:14-21
Our World is Loved by God So must We Love Our World
1. Who among us could lay claim to God’s love? Do we deserve his love? “If you, Lord, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered.” (Ps.130:3-4). According to St. Paul in the second reading: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ – by grace you have been saved –, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7). Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose their own path and abandoned God’s covenant. St. Paul writes “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12). Sin entered the world due to the manipulation of Satan and caused such ripple effects that brother rose up against brother and killed him. Jeremiah captured the collective heart of humanity prone to evil: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Hence, “When the Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth; and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.” (Gen. 6:5-7).
2. To this world, God sent his Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16). Many people in the world today do not believe that God cares about the world or even loves us. I remember a couple who came to the office to begin their marriage preparations. During the prenuptial investigations, I asked if they intended to have children. Their answer was an emphatic ‘No’. I asked why and they told me that they would not think of bringing a child into this messed-up world. For them, God had departed from the world and there was nothing good in it anymore. In sympathy with them, I would say that it is easy to find fault with our world in its present condition. If we are to be a little melodramatic, we may even say that God does not care. Why not? The world is such a corrupt, dangerous and sinful place. We hear, in the News, everyday about war and insurrection in nations of the world. There is hunger, greed, deceit, betrayal, abortion, infidelity, broken families, murder, accident, sickness, covid-19 pandemic, death, riots, revolts and police brutality everywhere. Our world is not different from the world of the first reading where “All the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.” (2 Chr. 36: 14). We sometimes feel like shouting, stop the world and let us out!
3. And yet, those who are disappointed with the world and her creator, are told: “For God so loved the world”, not only that God loves the world, He gave his beloved Son, not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him. I am sure God knows that mankind has abused his gift of free will. God knows that we tend to put ourselves first in all things, that we are self-centered, egoistic and manipulative. He knows that we lie, cheat and hate. Mankind is indeed the reason for the ugly state of our world today. God could leave us to perish, and form a new people, if he so wishes, yet he said, “With age-old love I have loved you; I have kept my mercy toward you. I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt.” (Jer. 31:3-4). Again, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; but you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls.” (Wisdom 11:24-26).
4. God insists that the world is loveable and should be saved by no other person than his only Son. That instead of destroying the world, His Son should give his life on the cross as a ransom for many so as “to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” (Jn. 11:52). Just like he used the pagan king Cyrus of Persia to set the children Israel free from bondage and enabled them to restore the temple in Jerusalem, He now sends his Son, out of love, to sacrifice his life, out of love, to redeem us from damnation and ensure that we have abundance life of grace with him. “I came so that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10).
5. So dear friends on this fourth Sunday of Lent, let us resolve to love the world that God loves. Instead of causing darkness, let us bring about light and make that light shine for all to see. Let us pray that the world may be a better place beginning with us. Let us stop blaming God for the ills of the world but see rather, the role we have played in creating a messed-up world so that we may be part of the cleaning process. Lent is about acknowledging our need for God and the need to deepen our relationship with God and others. We do this through a committed life of prayer, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence. Lent reminds us that nothing is ever impossible for God to do in our lives. Let us open our minds and hearts to God in our world and celebrate his presence and goodness even in the midst of sin. For “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:20-21). May God bless us now and always. Amen.
Rev. Augustine
Etemma Inwang, MSP
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