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Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne
Year B
On this page you will find:
The readings from the Mass
The Mass leaflet with the choice of hymns
A sample universal prayer available for download
In PDF format
In editable Word format
A meditation on the Sunday Gospel
A commentary to better understand the Gospel
A word for the road
March 10, 2024
4th Sunday of Lent
Joyful Sunday
God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that whoever believes in him may not perish,
but obtain eternal life.
John 3:16
Readings from the Mass
Lectio Divina
Mass leaflet
Universal Prayer
God loves us so much...
Today's Gospel reading offers us once again the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" (John 3:16). Listening to these words, we turn the gaze of our hearts toward Jesus Crucified and feel within ourselves that God loves us, truly loves us, and loves us so much! This is the simplest expression that sums up the entire Gospel, all of faith, all of theology: God loves us with a free and infinite love.
God loves us in this way, and God demonstrates this love above all in creation, as the liturgy proclaims in Eucharistic Prayer IV: "You made the world so that every creature might be filled with your blessings, and that many might rejoice in your light."
At the origin of the world, there was only the free and unconditional love of the Father. Saint Irenaeus, a saint of the early centuries, wrote: “God did not create Adam because he needed man, but to have someone to whom he could bestow blessings” (Adversus haereses, IV, 14, 1). So it is; so is the love of God.
Eucharistic Prayer IV continues: “Because he had lost your friendship by turning away from you, you did not abandon him to the power of death. In your mercy, you came to the aid of all people.” He came with his mercy. As in Creation, in the successive stages of salvation history as well, the gratuitous nature of God’s love shines through: the Lord chooses his people not because they deserve it, but because they are the least among all peoples, as he says. And when “the fullness of time” arrived, although humanity had broken the Covenant several times, instead of abandoning them, God established a new bond with them in the blood of Jesus—the bond of the new and eternal Covenant—a bond that nothing can ever break.
Saint Paul reminds us: "But God, who is rich in mercy - let us never forget, he is rich in mercy - because of the great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ God" (Ephesians 2:4).
The Cross of Christ is the supreme proof of God's mercy and love for us: Jesus loved us "to the end" (Jn 13:1), that is, not only until the last moment of his earthly life, but to the very limits of love. If, in creation, the Father gave us proof of his immense love by giving us life, in the passion and death of his Son, he gave us the supreme proof: he came to suffer and die for us. Mercy is as great as this: he loves us, he forgives us; God forgives everything and God always forgives.
May Mary, Mother of Mercy, place in our hearts the certainty that we are loved by God. May she be close to us in times of difficulty, and may she grant us the sentiments of her Son, so that our Lenten journey may be an experience of forgiveness, acceptance, and charity.
Homily of Pope Francis
for the 4th Sunday of Lent
March 15, 2015
Better understanding the Gospel
Touched by the light of the Crucified
Father Étienne Roche
The Fourth Sunday of Lent presents us with the conclusion of a dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus. A few elements restoring the context will help us to better understand it. At night, Nicodemus approaches Jesus to understand who he is and what his message is. He is surprised by Jesus' words, which emphasize the necessity of being "born again" (Jn 3:3, 7). Does this mean returning to his mother's womb? Nicodemus wonders (cf. v. 4). Jesus leads him much further: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (v. 6). It is through the action of the Holy Spirit that we follow Jesus and journey in faith; this new birth is to be received, it is a gift. Only the only Son, who came down from the Father, living by the breath of the Holy Spirit, teaches us this path. He chose to annihilate himself, to limit himself in time and space, to become incarnate in order to reveal the Father's love. Then comes today's Gospel.
Allow yourself to be transformed
The path of faith is not a smooth, easy journey. Jesus situates it within the long history of the covenant between God and his people, particularly under the aegis of a paradoxical sign: the bronze serpent. In the Book of Numbers, the people, in a state of profound despair, lament their enslavement in Egypt and rebel against Moses and against God. Faced with the gnawing pain of sin, symbolized by the sending of serpents, salvation comes through looking to a serpent that has been "raised." Jesus already announces here that this new birth will come through a contradictory exaltation: that of the cross. Just as with the Suffering Servant (cf. Isaiah 52:13), the Father's love for humanity will be expressed through the humiliation of the Son, even to the point of an ignominious death, as he accepts to give himself up to all, before the new life of the resurrection bursts forth. But, like all love, it offers itself without imposing itself. The Father can give no more than the offering of his Son for each of us. Opening ourselves and allowing ourselves to be transformed by this salvation is the only judgment… Will we be open enough to let ourselves be touched by this light that emanates from the Crucified? The temptation is great to look away, to harden our hearts, and to choose to obstruct this light with thicker shadows… Let us taste the joy of letting Christ meet us in our weaknesses and illuminate our hearts!
Last summer in Portugal, a reconciliation evening during World Youth Day, which I shared with my diocese, was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life as a priest. I was privileged to witness many transformations, lives that were being swept into the light. Wouldn't this be the perfect time for us, too, to allow ourselves to be renewed by this light of forgiveness?
In Magnificat
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