Lent IV

The Fourth Sunday of Lent

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

As the server poured water over my hands to ritually wash them, as prescribed, I prayed, “Lord, wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” And then out of my mouth came, “I wish it was this easy.” As I was drying my hands I realized, “It is.”

The simplest of heartfelt requests. “Lord, wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” A simple act. We all do it every day. Wash our hands.

I wonder how often in my 36 years as a priest I have prayed those words as my hands were washed and only now have come to realize their significance. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. It is easy. And why? “God, who is rich in mercy,because of the great love God has for us, even when we were dead in our sins…”

We have somehow mistakenly gotten this idea into our heads that we need to make ourselves good and perfect for God to love us. In other words, we believe we are the source of our salvation and not God. We commit the gravest of sins, idolatry; not by creating and worshiping images but by believing we ourselves are god.

How many of you parents have ever stopped loving your children because they did something wrong or even criminal; because they made bad choices which adversely affected other people; didn’t turn out the way you wanted or hoped they would; become addicted to alcohol, drugs, or porn; got caught up with the wrong crowd and went down a rabbit hole from which you could not retrieve them? The stories are many. So are your parental reactions. But, stop loving them?

God happens to love his children like you love your children.

Do we disappoint God? I expect so. Has God had to watch us walk away from him not knowing if we will return? Yes. Does God have sleepless nights waiting for us, wondering? Sure. Does God wake up to a pillow wet with tears? I expect so. Has any of this stopped God from loving us?

If you are not sure or don’t know or are afraid to answer; the answer is “No.”

“For by grace,” that’s a fancy theological word for God’s life and love, “you have been saved, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God, so no one may boast.”

We see it at almost every sports event. Someone holding up a poster with that cryptic code: John 3:16. Do you know what that’s about? It refers to a passage in today’s Gospel. “For God so loved the world that God gave his only Son,so that everyone who believes in the Son might not perish but might have eternal life.”

To understand the depth of that quote, consider that same passage rewritten for another context. “For Abraham so loved God that Abraham gave over his only son, Isaac…” – until someone stopped him.

The difference? Though Abraham and God both freely love, unlike Abraham, no one stooped God’s Son from being tortured, crucified and dying. God’s very-self, like any child is to a parent, was taken from God. Yet to show the depth of God’s love and care, God took what humanity did [and what we continue to do by making death-dealing choices] and turned it into a pathway to eternal life.

That is why we proclaim “Christ crucified.” The crucified Christ is the healing serpent that was lifted up by Moses in the desert. The crucified Christ is lifted up so that we might have eternal life. “It is the gift of God.”  But like all gifts it needs to be accepted and there is only one way as Psalm 51 teaches, and that is with “a contrite, humbled heart.” For it takes humility and contrition to say, “I am sorry” and admit we have sinned.

It takes humility and contrition to pray, “Lord, wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” And we cannot do it alone. Catholic Christianity is always communal. So even though I can say the words, I still need someone to pour the water and hand me the towel. We need someone to hear our humble contrition and thus the role of the priest who makes Jesus Christ present in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thus your role whenever you graciously listen to another person admit they have harmed you and you forgive them. You become water poured and towel proffered that make it easy. “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Christ.”