4th Sunday of Lent 2024

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
March 10, 2024

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As you probably know, traditionally, we call this Fourth Sunday of Lent — Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of Rejoicing. It’s because this Sunday marks the half-way point in our Lenten journey.

We’ve turned the corner and now we can see our destination getting closer in the distance. Ahead of us we can see Good Friday and the cross of Jesus Christ; and just beyond that, Easter morning and the light streaming from the empty tomb.

So we rejoice today because we know that in the cross of Christ we find the tender mercies and forgiveness of our God.

St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading: God is “rich in mercy”!

As we just heard: “Because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] brought us to life with Christ!”

God did this, not because we “deserve” it, not because of anything that we’ve done. God saves us and gives us new life, simply because he loves us. Simply because we are precious in his eyes.

In our first reading, from the Second Book of Chronicles, we heard how God loved his people like his own child. But, as we heard, they did not love him in return.

As we heard, the people “added infidelity to infidelity,” until finally, God’s enemies came and carried them off into exile.

But Israel’s sin was not the end of her story. In his compassion, God set them free from their captivity, and he called them home, to rebuild their Temple, to live with him in love and faithfulness.

So my brothers and sisters, this story of Israel is the story of our lives, too. God did not leave Israel in exile. And he does not leave us in captivity to our sins and transgressions. Even though often we forget him or turn our backs on him.

Sin will never get the last word. Not in our lives. And not in history.

I was thinking that the whole meaning of our religion is summed up in those words that we heard in the Gospel today: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

In these beautiful words, we hear God’s plan for our lives.

God created you out of love! And that’s why he sent his only Son into this world. Out of love for you. Love is why he gave his life for you on the cross. That’s how much he loves you, and there is no greater love than to lay down our life for one another.

This is the beautiful plan of love! Each of us can say, as St. Paul used to say: “[Jesus] loved me and gave himself for me.”²

So my dear brothers and sisters: Jesus is waiting for us now to give our lives to him, to love him as he has loved us. He is waiting for us to respond to his love with all our hearts, with all our strength.

So today, this beautiful Laetare Sunday, let us ask for that grace today. Let us ask for the grace to keep going, to work hard during these final weeks of Lent. Let’s try to get rid of anything in our lives that stands in our way, anything in our lives that keeps us from giving our lives totally to God, as he gave his only Son for us.

These weeks of Lent, as we know, are a good time to keep working on our prayer life, and also especially to be open to asking for forgiveness of our sins. So it’s a good time to make a good Confession. Jesus tells us today: “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done by God.”

That’s what Confession is all about. Looking at our lives in the light of Christ, looking at our lives truthfully.

As we heard today: Jesus comes to save us, not to condemn us. So we have nothing to be afraid of in Confession. We just come, we tell the truth about our sins and weaknesses, and the Lord shows us his merciful love and forgiveness, and we experience the peace and joy that God wants for us.

It’s a beautiful sacrament, just thinking of the graces that we receive and the love of God and the mercy of God for every one of us.

Let’s not forget, too, that God has a mission for us.

St. Paul reminds us today that we are God’s “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance that we should live in them.”

What Paul is telling us is that we have been saved for a reason!

Jesus loves us and saves us, so that us can share his love and help him to save others.

Every one of us has a duty to do these “good works,” to seek God’s will and to “lift up” Jesus and proclaim him by the way we live our lives.

So this season of Lent is a time to renew ourselves, keep growing in our love for God and also to share the beauty of the presence of God to the people around us.

So everyone of us has a duty to do these good works, to seek God’s will and proclaim him by the way we live, as I said.

So we need to love the world, just as God does! We need to proclaim to our neighbors and friends and family — that God wants every person, not to perish, but to have eternal life.

So today, let us, again, open our hearts during this beautiful time of Lent. Let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother for her intercession.

May she help us to give our lives to Jesus, as she did, and to shine his light in the world, “that the world might be saved through him.”