The Sánchez Archives FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Early and Often

2 CHRONICLES 36:14-17, 19-23
EPHESIANS 2:4-10
JOHN 3:14-21

Having arrived at the halfway mark on our annual Lenten journey, the praying community is invited today to look back on what has transpired thus far and to press onward for what is yet to come. From this vantage point believers may draw lessons from the past so as to live more faithfully in the present and face the future with renewed insight and resolve.

Recall the words of the American poet and philosopher, George Santayana, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it” (The Life of Reason, 1905). Perhaps this same understanding of the human experience prompted the Chronicler (first reading) to lead his contemporaries through a galloping overview of their past performance as a people. In assessing what appears to be an overstocked inventory of infidelity, rebellion and sin, modern readers of the ancient historian may be inclined to engage in fault finding or casting blame on the perpetrators of these failures. However, the church periodically puts texts such as this one before believers so that they may recognize therein a mirror image of their own personal and communal shortcomings.

Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Chronicler to today’s liturgy is the reminder that early and often did the Lord God send messengers to the people out of deep compassion for them (2 Chronicles 36:15). Every believer with a regrettable past can discover new hope in that statement because until the eschatological climax of the cosmos, God will continue making loving, merciful overtures toward sinners, early and often. Of this, we may be certain, considering the fact that our early and often God has made the ultimate overture in the person of Jesus, incarnate, crucified and risen in victory over sin and death.

Both the second reading from Ephesians and the gospel pericope from John call the gathered assembly to focus on the mystery of salvation as a gift to sinners. That the gift has come to us shrouded in the trappings of suffering and hammered in the shape of a cross cannot be overlooked; indeed the cross, as the great sign of God’s loving mercy, is central to the Christian faith. In addition to being the physical instrument of Jesus’ death, the crossed wooden beams are replete with theological significance; they represent the contradiction which too often characterizes human behavior. For example, we are loved by God with impartial and immeasurable altruism, yet we mete out our love and loyalties to the lovable, or to those who can reciprocate the favor; or to those we have deemed worthy of our attention. God forgives each of us freely and fully and yet we punish the faults of others by withholding affection, holding grudges, and clinging to the memories of past hurts. Whereas God is always ready to listen to us in great trials as well as trivial concerns, we build silent walls of indifference that make others feel bothersome or unimportant. Although we have been taught that God’s concerns are actively directed toward the poor, the lost, the homeless, the hungry, the sick and the abandoned, we ease our consciences by offering an occasional prayer or money donation for these least brethren. We believe that God became incarnate to draw near to these least ones, yet we prefer to keep a safe distance from the faces of human hardship.

Could it be that these whom we shun and overlook are the very messengers that our compassionate God sends to us, early and often? Could it be that those whom we think are sidetracked on the path of salvation are the very means God has placed on our way to guide us? At this, the midpoint of Lent, the scriptures alert us to search out these messengers and to rectify those contradictions in our lives which have contributed to the Cross.

2 CHRONICLES 36:14-17, 19-23

Pope John XXIII, in his encyclical, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) frequently used the phrase, “discerning the signs of the times” to refer to the Church’s responsibility of recognizing and understanding the world in which it ministers with all its expectations and longings. Following the lead of their then deceased leader, the participants at the Second Vatican Council promulgated Gaudium et Spes (“Joy and Hope”, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern Word: 1965) and asserted that it is indeed the “duty of the church to scrutinize the signs of the times and to interpret these in the light of the gospel” (# 3-4). More recently, Pope John Paul II agreed that it is the responsibility of pastors and other ministers “to give careful attention to current events in order to discern the new requirements of evangelization” (Centesimus Annus, “A Hundred Years”, # 3). For his part, the author of today’s first reading, an unnamed chronicler of the times and events of his people, called his contemporaries to discern the signs of God’s continuing activity in their midst.

Our ancestors in the faith did not regard history as a series of merely human events but also as the locus of God’s self-revelation. As Rolt Rendtorff explained, “Jaweh (sic) becomes visible in his powerful acts of salvation. He becomes known through these acts; whoever sees or experiences them can know God in them. He becomes revealed in them” (Revelation as History, Sheed and Ward, London: 1969). Therefore, to read clearly, and with scrutiny, the signs of the times is to come face to face with the mystery of the self-revealing God.

Writing ca 400 B.C.E., the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles interpreted the prosperous and successful periods of Israel’s development as God’s reward for fidelity to the covenant and the terms of the covenant, viz.. the law. Conversely, the tragedies which befell Israel and the losses at war were ascribed to covenantal infidelity.

Israel had not listened to the messengers God had sent, early and often, to keep the people attuned to the truth, justice and mercy which was expected of them. Therefore they suffered the consequences. The seventy years prescribed for the land to lie fallow (v. 22) was probably the length of time from the destruction of the temple (586 B.C.E.) to the time when it was rebuilt and rededicated under the auspices of the Persian King Darius (ca. 515 B.C.E.)

Just as the chronicler attributed the chastisement of the people to God, so also would relief come at the moment, and in the manner, God would decide. God’s instrument in the chronicler’s historical schema was Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of the vast empire of Babylon. The edict of Cyrus, cited in verse 23 was first quoted in the book of Ezra (1:1-3). Cyrus’ decree reflected an enlightened Persian policy which was not threatened by religious diversity. Although the decree was historically accurate, it is doubtful that Cyrus actually claimed Yahweh as God. Deutero-Isaiah was probably more correct in portraying Cyrus as achieving the divine purpose, but unaware of and without allegiance to Yahweh (Isaiah 45:4-5).

While contemporary believers no longer apply a theologcal interpretation to their history, God is nevertheless present; early and often do the messengers of God continue to come among us.

EPHESIANS 2:4-10

During the American depression (1929-1939 C.E.) a ferry-boat captain managed to eke out a modest living for himself and his family by piloting his boat up and down the Mississippi. His boat was old and in poor repair. The engines were grimy, spewing forth soot and smoke as the boat made its seemingly endless shuttle on the river.

The captain was as unkempt as his boat, his manner with passengers often surly and rude. As it happened, the captain was proselytized by one of his passengers, a traveling missionary who introduced the captain to Christ and to the gospel; his conversion was profound and authentic.

One of the first things the captain did was to clean up his ferry-boat and repair its engines. The decks and deck chairs were freshly painted and all the brass fixtures were polished. As to his personal appearance and demeanor, the captain was utterly transformed. Clean-shaven, and with a smile, he greeted his regular customers who immediately remarked about the pleasant changes he had made. In reply, the captain said, “I’ve got a newfound glory and it shines out in all I do; that’s what Christ does for a person. He gives him a glory!” In his letter to the Christians of Ephesus, the author of today’s second reading described a similar transformation that had taken place in his readers because of Christ.

Characterizing their life before Christ as being dead in sin (v. 5), the ancient author attributed the radical change that took place in the lives of believers to the grace of God in which they put their faith. Through grace and by faith, the Ephesians had become good people, in whom the glory of Christ had begun to be manifest. Like the ferry-boat captain, their conversion to Christ was reflected in the way they lived, loved, played and did business.

Recall that Ephesus was home to a variety of philosophical systems and schools of thought which touted self-realization and self-improvement as a purely human capability. An incipient brand of gnosticism “conceived of the saving work of God as revelation, rather than as salvation, and the effect of the saving act as knowledge, rather than life.” (Max Zerwick, The Epistle to the Ephesians, Herder and Herder, New York: 1969). Therefore those who accrued sufficient knowledge were saved, as opposed to those Christians who understood salvation as God’s transforming gift to sinners.

Stressing to his readers, this is not your own doing,” and “neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished” (vv.8-9), the Ephesians’ author then went on to stress the importance of leading “a life of good deeds” (v. 10). William Barclay referred to this seeming contradiction as the Pauline paradox and explained, “All the good works in the world cannot put you right with God; but there is something radically wrong with the Christianity that does not issue in good works” (The Daily Study, St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh: 1976).

Lenten Christians who are being gifted daily with a share in Christ’s transforming glory are reminded by this ancient author to allow that glory to spill over into every other aspect of the human experience.

JOHN 3:14-21

According to Greek mythology, Hermes, messenger of the gods carried a caduceus as a symbol of peace. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it became the badge worn by heralds and ambassadors signifying their inviolability. Originally the caduceus was a rod or olive branch decorated with garlands or ribbons. As time passed, the garlands were interpreted as two snakes, entertwined in opposite directions with their heads facing. A pair of wings, representing the swiftness of Hermes was attached to the staff above the snakes. The similarity of the caduceus to the staff of Aesclepius, the healer, (a single serpent entwined on a staff branched at the top) resulted in the adoption of the caduceus as a symbol of the physician and as the emblem of the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Serpent signs of healing such as these have played a main role in mythological and religious traditions throughout the world and were known to our ancient Israelite ancestors as well. According to the narrative from the book of Numbers (21:4-9), the wandering Hebrews were instructed by Moses to look upon the serpent entwined on the staff as he held it aloft. Those who looked at the serpent were healed. In calling his first century B.C.E. contemporaries to contemplate the symbol of the healing serpent, the author of Wisdom referred to it as symbolon soterias or the sign of salvation. Following suit, the Johannine author incorporated this event into today’s gospel pericope and offered the raised serpent sign as a type or prefigurement of the lifted up and crucified Christ. The term lifted up or hypsothenai exhibits the Johannine penchant for words with double meaning. In addition the referring for words with double meaning. In addition to referring to the hoisting of the crucified Jesus onto the gibbet (8:28; 12:32), it also described Jesus’ resurrection from death and his exaltation in glory at God’s right hand. John’s readers are also invited to recall Deutero-Isaiah’s description of the suffering servant: “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high (hypsoun) and greatly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13).

With all these inferences in mind, the Johannine evangelist assures believers that those who would look with faith upon the cross of Christ would be healed of sin and delivered from death to enjoy eternal life.

Throughout the course of their checkered relationship, God had sent messengers, early and often, to generations upon generations of Israelites. In each instance the motivating factor was divine love. The depth and extent of that love was made known in the moment when God sent the ultimate messenger, Jesus. John 3:16 is perhaps the most frequently quoted of all scripture verses. Television viewers and/or sports fans can attest to the frequency with which this text is displayed on banners and signs at various athletic events.

Once again, this text hinges on a word with more than one meaning; God gave (didonai) Jesus referred to the gift of the divine word in flesh and blood, and time and space (the incarnation), as well as to the gift of Jesus’ life in the sacrifice of the cross. Although the words trip glibly off the tongue, today’s believers are called to ponder both the message and the messenger, early and often, in reverent silence, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”

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