Homily

We are now more than halfway in our Lenten path, and the liturgy of the Church, interrupting the austerity of this time, invites us to rejoice. In the past even the colour of the liturgical vestments was milder, from purple becoming pink in order to underline this interruption of gladness. Truly this exhortation does seem to have lost its meaning when Lent is not perceived as severe as before and fasting is almost totally not performed. Indeed these forty days pass mostly like others, without any urgency to the call to rejoice. The liturgical invitation, even if in the past it included the suspension of austerity, did not want to push towards a sense of mindlessness or a superficial sense of life. On the contrary, well knowing the difficulties and problems men and women have, the liturgy is well aware of the need for true gladness. So here, in the midst of our Lenten journey, the exhortation to rejoice; the reason being that Easter, the victory of good over evil and of life over death is approaching.
This is the true announcement of joy that the liturgy brings to us. Objective reasons that show the permanence of evil are not lacking and yet, it is indispensable to hope in a world different from what we now live in. The victory of Easter, that defeats evil and sin, must illumine everything and everywhere, especially in those peoples tormented by war and violence, as well as among the poor who continue to increase in our cities. It is urgent to give back hope where an atmosphere of violence and aggressiveness prevails. The consumerist mentality, which focuses on oneself and on one’s own immediate satisfaction, must be dismantled, for it leads inevitably to a competitive and violent lifestyle. Consumerist men and women, forced to live in a continuous race to consume and satisfy any desire, are overwhelmed by the unstoppable spiral of love for oneself that is at the root of all violence. The need to find a religious and ethical dimension that may break this vicious circle and give meaning to life is more and more urgent, not only for personal salvation, but also for the entire society.
The second book of Chronicles helps us understand today’s situation. The sacred author connects the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent period of slavery in Babylon to the infidelity of the people to the Lord’s commandments: “All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful... they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.” Their enemies burned down the Temple, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, and those who escaped death were deported. With language typical of the Old Testament, Scripture stresses the close relationship between these tragic events and the lessening of the moral fibre of the whole people. Indeed it is not only the few who are singled out to common judgment and condemned as expiatory victims but the consequent degeneration and end of civic life itself. This is why every year the Lenten Season comes back as an opportune time: it helps us return to the Lord, to read again Scripture and reflect on the true meaning of life, on all our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds.
The Gospel of John we heard today tells us that the answer to the question about the meaning of life is Jesus who died and rose. Even Nicodemus heard the same answer with the reference to the episode of the snake lifted up by Moses in the desert so that the snake saved the life of the Israelites from snakes bites: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. The Book of Wisdom had already intuited that episode as a sign of salvation and God’s love by singing about the bronze snake and defining it as a symbol of deliverance to remind them of your law’s command. For the one who turned towards it was saved, not by the thing that was beheld, but by you, the Saviour of all (Wis 16:6-7). The snake lifted on the staff is for John the symbol of Christ’s cross “lifted up” in the midst of humanity. For the evangelist, Jesus “lifted up” is not an image that should cause commiseration or compassion: the cross is source of life; a generous and borderless source that is free and abundant: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, - continues the evangelist - so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Anyone who is affected by the poisonous bites of snakes today should simply turn his or her eyes to the “lifted” man and will find healing. Jesus himself said later: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). Salvation, as well as the meaning of life, does not come from us or from our human traditions. Salvation is given to us. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes, “ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (2:4-5). The reason for “rejoicing” to which the liturgy of this Sunday calls us to return is that we can rejoice as the prodigal son who, upon returning home, discovers that the love of the Father is vastly greater than his sin and his malice.