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Fourth Sunday of Lent B
March 18, 2012
Reading I: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Responsorial Psalm: 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Reading II: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/031812-fourth-sunday-of-lent.cfm
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
If we read John 3 in a modern translation we will see some verses enclosed in quotation marks ("..."). Scholars would say that these would be words of Jesus, the rest (e.g., vs 16-21) being the author's own reflections.
It might be useful today to read the whole of chapter 3 (http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/3). The conversation with Nicodemus starts with the newness of the 'kingdom of God'. What Mark referred to as metanoia, John describes as being born from above, i.e., being given a new life - or should we say a new level of life (recalling the evolutionary leap discussed a few weeks ago).
Then there is a section about the authority of the one who speaks 'of heavenly things', the one who has 'come from heaven, the son of man', and the need to trust him. Today's reading takes off in the middle of a statement. It is useful to go back one sentence:
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (New International Version 1984)
The bronze serpent mounted on a pole has echoes in it of the ancient Egyptian symbol of Eternal Life - New Birth - Rebirth, the ankh. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh). In the desert the person who looked at the bronze serpent was given recovery, 'not by what was seen, but by you, the saviour of all', as the book of Wisdom will explain (Wis 16:7). Clearly it was necessary, in looking on the symbol, to have faith in its meaning and to trust in the power and purpose of god, for it is a symbol of the victory of life over death, of good over evil, of 'what is above' over what is 'of this world only'.
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The son is not sent to condemn the world but to 'save' it. Again I find that I 'default' to one meaning of 'to save', namely, to snatch from the fires of hell, to save from eternal punishment, etc. But even a judge in our local court would prefer to say he has come to rehabilitate the person before him.
Rehabilitation is something many have experienced one way or another. 'The son was sent to rehabilitate humankind.' Rehabilitation demands active participation on the part of the subject for it involves the re-building of a life; in the terms that Jesus used, it involves being 'born of the spirit'.
Nicodemus asked if being 'born from above' was like another physical birth. The answer is it is different on every level. Our physical birth is something that happens to us: we 'are born'. But this second birth requires us to be evolving with the commitment of our own energy, thought, initiative. It happens by the power of the spirit, which is of another order to the power of flesh and blood: it is a birth of the person, of the spiritual being.
Finally, physical birth is the beginning, that moment that starts us off in life, while being born from above is a life-long process that achieves its final stage only in the moment of our dying.
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In a fanciful mood I tried to transfer the rest of the chapter to a human situation, to see if there was an easier way to follow John's ideas.
I imagine a remote community, a town in the outback where things have not been going well. Over time many attempts have been made to make the town safe and a place where people would be happy to live. Finally a team has arrived with the mandate to sort things out. It is 9 o'clock in the morning and it seems that the whole town is crowding into the room or standing around the doors and windows. The atmosphere is alive with expectation born of waiting too long for help to come. The circuit judge begins his address to open the proceedings:
'We know that things are not going well out here. Your community is being talked about all over the country. Some say it is destroying itself. Some in the government wanted to send me out here to apprehend the trouble-makers, toss them in prison and throw away the key, but the Premier did not accept that idea. My instructions from the Attorney General are, not to condemn the town, but to save it.'
'Just make it safe,' murmers a woman with her daughter at her side. 'No,' says an old man nearby. 'Give us a chance to fix it up and we will get the community going.' His young companion says: 'Rehabilitation, that's what we want.'
The judge continues: 'I should say that if we are going to make any progress together I will have to ask you to trust me, to believe in my good will towards every person here. You must not see me as a harsh punishing vindictive justice, but as - well, as one of you, for we all have our problems and we are all in this together.
'Any of you who can find it in yourselves to trust me can really hope to find a way forward. On the other hand, if you can't trust me I can't see how you will ever get out of the mess you're in. I'm afraid people might say you've only got yourselves to blame. But that's the way it is: some people stand condemned already because even when there is light to see the way forward, they prefer the darkness because they lean the wrong way.
'It's been my experience that people who do wicked things hate the light, whether it is the light of reasonable arguments, or the good will that is shown them. They seem to have no desire to go towards the light that is the "common good" of working together. They even refuse to see the light of good example in their mates; they even turn back on the love of people who would be their friends: they will not come towards the light for fear the things they do might be exposed as bad, selfish, ugly.
'In any community, including this one, there are people who try to be genuine and honest - true people, who respond to the light when they see a hand stretched out to help them. They actually move towards the light and you can see that they are genuine, godly people. I will bring these remarks to a close with an invitation to everyone here, everyone in this town, to come to the light and let the genuine truth in you be seen. We can build on that if you believe me and trust me.'
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The point of all this is that is shows the gospel passage, for all its compact wording, actually does reflect this sort of real situation. It is strange that our theology has taught us to read it with fear and to feel condemned by what is a message of hope.