His Handiwork

Fourth Sunday of Lent 2015 B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Early and often the LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.  But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the LORD’s anger against his people blazed up beyond remedy.  2 Chronicles 26:15-16

For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.  Ephesians 4:10

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  John 3:17

Piety

All the reflections of Christ in our lives are the piety of who we are in Christ. All the ways we are lifted up with Christ bring us his salvation and make us his representatives in life. God so loved the world that he sent his own Son to be our salvation. How we join ourselves to Christ in his dying brings us to share his mission from the Father. We become God’s so great love for us in how we carry our crosses of life in the name of Christ. There is no bypass of the cross if we are to share the work of Christ. We too need to be lifted up.

Study

God, rich in mercy has given us his Son to be our redemption. How we look at the Christ on the Cross opens our heart to the mercy and the love of God. In the Old Testament, the people looked at the serpent that Moses showed them and they were healed. We look at Christ on the Cross and call him to save us.

Action

Our world is saved through the dying of Christ. He is the love of the Father by his obedience to the Father. Our acceptance of his being the Father’s love for our world allows us to be the same. How we offer ourselves in the name of Christ allows us to be partakers of the sharing of the Father’s love for our world. The sacrifices of Lent we offer for each other are the way the love of God reaches the world through us. We take up our crosses in his name and find the joy in fulfilling what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ in our day and age by carry our crosses in his name. No sacrifice is too great or too little to fulfill what the Father is asking of us to do in the name of his Son. We become the love of the Father by offering ourselves in the name of Christ.