Fourth Sunday of Lent Cycle C

March 27

Cycle C  Mass without RCIA   Cycle C is what we have been using this year.

Usually one Mass this Sunday will be for Cycle A with the RCIA those to be Baptized at Easter

 

Cycle A Mass with RCIA

Review the Readings Mass with RCIA

 

 

 

 

Cycle C  Mass without RCIA continues below

Review the Reading Mass without RCIA

 

Cycle C Reflection continues below

Fourth Sunday of Lent  

 

Latare Latin for

The liturgical color for this day

can be rose or continue with the Lenten violet

 

 

 

 

My reflection below is on the readings used at Mass without the RCIA Scrutinies or Cycle C

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the first reading  we see that, after being freed from the slavery in Egypt, and after wondering for forty years in the desert  God has brought his people to the land He had promised to give them. 

 

 

 

God has provided food, manna and quail so that each person had just enough.  Now Joshua, the successor of Moses, told them that this would stop now that they were about to enter the Promised Land.

 They were to be given a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

 

 

 

God had kept his promise with the people of the Old Testament, his chosen ones.  He now keeps that same promise made to each of us and brings us to eternal life.

 

 

The people led by Joshua,  were unfaithful and did abandoned God for other gods.  

Aren't we the same at moments when we place trusts into other things rather than in God?

 

 

Yet our God never gave up on the people, and God will never give up on us, no matter how many times we fail.  He wants to bring each of us to the promised land, to eternal life.

 

 

As we listen to the Gospel of Luke  about the prodigal son, it is important for each of us to see ourselves are, at times, like that prodigal son.

And this will  happen again and again  in our lives.  

We are the ones who need to be able to recognize our sins, and like the prodigal son, return to the father who will always embraces us and forgive of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God welcomes us with open arms.  We can depend upon his mercy, but we need to be honest in seeing ourselves, at times, as sinners.  We all have a tendency to not want to see ourselves as sinners.  We can so easily judge others as bigger sinners than ourselves, and thus escape seeing our own sins.  We need  to have the courage to be honest with ourselves. This is absolutely necessary to receive God's mercy.  That is partially what the practices of Lent have, hopefully, done for us, shown us our sins and failures more clearly.

 

 

In the second reading,  the converted Jews, (57 A.D)  are being reminded by Paul that they have been called by God and through their baptism; they now have a way to turn from sin and live the Gospel.

 

We are reminded that when we see our own sinfulness;  God is always there for us to heal us.

 

 

 

We can be made new because of all that Christ has gone through for each of us.   Now is a great time to use the sacrament of Penance, so we can experience absolution and know that we are forgiven.

 

Never think that we will stop sinning because we go to confession.  We will stop sinning when we die.  Until then, we need to use this sacrament again and again.  Sometimes we realize that the closer we get to God, the more He lets us recognize our sins.  This was true with many of the saints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like the story of the prodigal son, the mercy of God and His pardon are always there  for our asking so we can truly...

 

...Rejoice...Latare!

 

Listen to my  Homily from 2012

 

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