A Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

+ If we wish to enter into the mysteries that the Sacred Liturgy of this Fourth Sunday of Lent makes present in our midst, we could do no better than to contemplate the realities sung of in the “proper” chants of this Mass: the Introit, the Gradual, the Tract and the Offertory and Communion verses.
 
“Laetare”—rejoice!—the Introit insists, singing of the consolation and gladness of being able to go unto the House of the Lord; a motif repeated in the Gradual, which prays for peace within the Lord’s House in spite of all that rages without. Indeed, the Tract assures us, “those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Sion itself”—they shall be unmoved and unmovable, protected by the Lord Himself. In the light of this the Offertory antiphon’s “Laudate Dominum…” cannot cease singing God’s praises, whilst the Communion antiphon subtly rejoices in the fraternity—the profound communion—enjoyed by all who enter the House of the Lord to give Him glory.
 
Wisely, then, does our Holy Mother, the Church, give us this Laetare Sunday in the middle of Lent. For whilst we battle our concupiscence and our vices and seek to discipline the body and its passions, we need to keep the end in view. Penance is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Heaven is not about perpetual jansenistic self-denial but about exactly the opposite: it is a place of purified and perfect exaltation in profound interpersonal communion and love—of God, and through Him, of others. (It is, as it were, the ‘best of parties,’ not only because it is eternal, but also because the following morning no one needs to feel embarrassed or to apologise to anyone!)
 
This is why we do penance. This is why we pray, fast and give alms in these forty days of Lent. This is why we restrain and train our bodies. This is why we prepare to make a good and integral confession so as worthily to be able to receive Holy Communion at Easter. Let us not forget the precept of the Church that every Catholic is obliged to receive Holy Communion worthily at least once a year between Ash Wednesday and Trinity Sunday—which implies making a good Lenten confession. We do all of these things, and we do them rightly and in justice, in the hope of participating in all that God has promised. We are sinners, certainly, and we are weak and unable to manage by ourselves, but if we are prepared to do that which we can—which we try even harder to do in Lent—God’s grace and strength and power, indeed the merits won by Christ’s Passion and Death on the Cross, shall unfailingly come to our aid.
 
Our task is to present to Our Lord our five barley loaves and two fish, and yes, to do so with the realisation that what we offer is completely inadequate. But—and this is not only the lesson of the beautiful Gospel of this Holy Mass, but it is also the reason why we can, and indeed why we must, rejoice: if we give ourselves and all that we have, completely, if we take our Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving seriously (more seriously than heretofore), if we examine our consciences diligently and make a humble and good sacramental confession of our sins, if we truly give ourselves over to God’s will for us in this life, then He will do the rest. He will work a miracle—many miracles!—in us and through us, including the miracles of our conversion and salvation.
 
Certainly, we must persevere in this hope, and we must persevere in a world that is increasingly Godless and hostile, even to the basic right to life. How can we ignore the abominable insertion of the right to kill an innocent unborn child at will in the Constitution of this country in the past week, or the proud promotion of the same infanticide by the current President of “the land of the free”? Our Successors of the Apostles would do well to borrow the words of their predecessor, Saint Paul, in decrying that “Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:21) Yet the silence of so many of them itself cries out to heaven for vengeance.
 
Perhaps one of the miracles that Almighty God can work through us, if we conform ourselves to His Will by doing penance for our sins and open ourselves to His grace, is precisely here: in the proclamation of the Gospel of Life in the face of the “culture of death” (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical, Evangelium vitae, 25 March 1995) in our families, amongst those with whom we work or socialise, or who turn to us for help in times of crisis? We must be willing, certainly, so do to, and we must be ready to give the help and support that people need. It is precisely here, in Lent, through our Lenten purifications, that we can ready ourselves and attune ourselves more closely to be the instruments of God’s Providence.
 
There is much in our world, indeed there is much in our fallen, sinful nature, in which not to rejoice: there is very much of which we must repent and do penance. But if we are willing so to do, in all humility, presenting to Our Lord our ‘willing inadequacy’, He can and shall do what is necessary. And for this reason we can truly rejoice. For this reason, we can go now to His altar with the confidence that from it we shall receive all that we need, with much more left over besides. Lætare Jerusalem…Gaudete cum Laetitia qui in tristitia fuistis. +