BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 18)
Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B – March 30, 2003
BIBLE READINGS
Early this morning, on my way to the chapel, I looked at the morning newspaper. The headline that screamed of the U.S. attack on Iraq filled me with dread. Yesterday, on the feast of St. Joseph, I was praying for a miracle: that the war be averted. In my prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, I held the February 19th issue of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, containing the statement of Cardinal Etchegaray, special envoy of the Holy Father to Iraq, and made it the subject of my prayer. According to Cardinal Etchegaray, “Peace is possible.” The complete text of the Pope’s envoy is reported below.
I have just experienced in Iraq an extraordinary intensity of communion with the person who sent me there, Pope John Paul II. Seldom have I felt so strongly that I was not only the bearer of his message of peace but that he himself was present. I only followed him among the Christian communities. Among all the Iraqi people, to President Saddam Hussein who showed a profound willingness to listen to a living word that comes from God, and that every believer, as descendant of Abraham, welcomes as the surest leaven of peace.
As I leave this land, unjustly cut off from all others, I want to be more than a simple echo and amplifier of the aspiration of a country that has an urgent need of peace.
Among the dark clouds that recently have gathered, here is a small glimmer of light. But let no one stop praying. The new and brief respite which has been granted must be used by all in a spirit of reciprocal confidence to respond to the demands of the international community. The least step in these days will have the value of a great leap towards peace.
Yes, peace is still possible in Iraq and for Iraq. I depart for Rome crying this out more strongly than ever.
In the distressing moment of today’s armed conflict, the heroic peace making attempt of Pope John Paul II and his special envoy, Cardinal Etchegaray, is a figure of the loving act of the Father who sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved. In the pain and throes of today’s war, let us contemplate the saving will of God who sent his beloved Son to offer salvation to all. In the present context, this would include both the Iraqis and the Americans alike. It is in view of universal salvation that the Son of God has been sent and sacrificed. A prayerful reading of this Sunday’s Gospel (Jn 3:14-21) can give us strength and hope in the midst of the chaos and violence that threaten to engulf us.
The Gospel passage, Jn 3:14-21, is situated in the context of Jesus dialogue with one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leading Jew, who came to Jesus by night and asked him, “How can a grown man be born?” (cf. Jn 3:4). Jesus responded to the curiosity of this cautious, but honest Jewish leader, by teaching him how and why the birth from above can happen. The birth would be made possible through his passion, death, and resurrection, or his being “lifted up”. According to Jn 3:14: “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.” The elevated serpent in the desert mentioned by Jesus in his dialogue with Nicodemus evokes an incident in Num 21:9 in which Moses fashioned a bronze serpent which he put on a pole, and if anyone was bitten by a serpent, he looked at the bronze serpent and lived. The healing symbol of the elevated bronze serpent prefigures Jesus “lifted up” on the cross as a source of salvation for all, drawing all peoples to himself (cf. Jn 12:32).
Indeed, the necessity of being reborn is deeply rooted in God’s pure and unmerited love for the world. According to the biblical scholar, Teresa Okure, “the depth of this love is measured by God’s gift of the uniquely beloved divine Son, loved as no one else is loved. God could not have given anything more precious to prove how much he loves us.” Our God is a saving God. Motivated by love, he has gifted the world with his own Son, not to condemn but to save the world (cf. Jn 3:17). The whole of creation, and in particular its human inhabitants, is God’s “beloved” and the object of his redemptive plan. Our duty as recipients of this unmerited goodness is to believe in such an overwhelming love and respond totally to God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ with our whole mind, will and heart.
It is possible to refuse the “immeasurable riches of his grace” (Eph 2:7) which in his kindness is offered to us in Jesus Christ. It is possible to prefer darkness to light and to do wicked things that will negate the light of life. Those who freely choose the darkness freely choose their own condemnation. The believers in God’s saving love concretized in the person of Christ will not be condemned, however. Whoever lives the truth comes to the light (cf. Jn 3:18, 21). According to the French exegete, Pierre Bernard, in uttering these maxims, Jesus does not have in mind merely the masters of Israel. “He also casts his glance over the leaders of the Gentiles. The maxims he enunciates are applicable to every region, as to all ages, of humanity … This is grave for all, but particularly for those who are leaders and rulers … Jesus knew what an immense danger overshadowed the world in this regard.”
The first reading (cf. 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23) complements the salvation theme underlined in the Johannine Gospel text. Throughout the tumultuous history of Israel, God continued to manifest his infinite love for them. Their unfaithfulness and idolatry inevitably led to their destruction and captivity in Babylon, located in the present day Iraq. But God brought about the liberation of his people by making use of the pagan king, Cyrus of Persia. According to Aelred Rosser: “A pagan king becomes Judah’s savior – a profound embarrassment for this monotheistic nation, and yet at the same time a tribute to the power of God to bring good out of an evil situation by employing the most unlikely means. There is no limit to God’s love for his people, and no limits to which God will not go to demonstrate that love.”
Indeed, the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for the people of Israel and for all peoples is the paschal mystery of Christ. In the face of the fear and uncertainty brought about by the present war in Iraq and in our desire for the healing balm of peace for all peoples, we cling with hope to this faith affirmation: “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” (Jn 3:16).
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Adapted from Pope John Paul II’s “Prayer with young people for peace” in L’Osservatore Romano, April 9, 1985, p. 4.)
Leader: Lord Jesus Christ, give us your peace, the peace that springs from your pierced heart, peace in truth, in justice and in love. Give us your peace, but not for us to keep for ourselves. Entrust it to our generation so that we may share it with those who thirst for it, and so that we may make it grow, as a precious heritage for those who come after us.
Assembly: For God so loved the world that he sent you to us to be our Savior and bearer of peace.
Leader: Convert the oppressors and the violent to your peace. Give enlightenment and courage to the rulers and leaders of nations to restrain the spiral of that crazy logic that leads to resources being removed from life and used instead for the purpose of death and the destruction of the planet.
Assembly: For God so loved the world that he sent you to us to be our Savior and bearer of peace.
Leader: May you, Jesus, be our peace. May your Holy Spirit pacify our soul with the sacrament of your Church so that we ourselves may be peace for all our brothers and sisters.
Assembly: For God so loved the world that he sent you to us to be our Savior and bearer of peace.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“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.” (Jn 3:16)