Dear Parishioners,
Saints of God, the Lord be with you!
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, often called Laetare Sunday. Laetare translates from Latin to mean “rejoice.” I don’t know about you, but reaching the midpoint of Lent is cause for celebration in and of itself, since Lent is my least favorite liturgical season. However, all of today’s readings give us reason to rejoice. In the reading from the First Book of Samuel, the Lord sends the prophet to discover and anoint God’s choice to be king. God sends Samuel, not to the largest of cities, but to a small backwater village named Bethlehem. Surprisingly, God’s choice is not the eldest, nor the strongest, nor the wisest; but the youngest who is tending the sheep: David.
For God sees us with a depth of vision that we can’t even imagine.
LAETARE!
God has chosen each of us to be baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ so as to continue the incarnation.
LAETARE!
Christ wears our face; Christ is who we are in the depths of our being.
LAETARE!
The second reading from the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us that our identity in Christ is “light” and that we are called to live now as “light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” With so much darkness in the world, we are called to be the light of Christ. LAETARE! Baptism gives us a reason for living and the meaning of our lives: to continue the mission of Jesus Christ. In today’s Gospel according to John, Jesus cures a blind man who is subsequently thrown out of the synagogue. On hearing this, Jesus “found him” and reveals himself to the man now cured of blindness. The man says he believes that the one standing in front of him is the Son of Man, and worships Jesus.
LAETARE!
Christ is always with us, but often goes unnoticed.
LAETARE!
Christ will never abandon us or throw us out.
Stop and think this week on all the good works that you, the parishioners of Sacred Heart, do. What may be unnoticed by others is not unnoticed by God. Perhaps our greatest affirmation by God is the fact that this Easter, at the Vigil, Christ is calling seven men and women to enter the Catholic Church through the Parish of Sacred Heart.
LAETARE!
– Fr. Steve
