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| John 3:14-21 |
In
today’s Gospel we hear one of the most quoted Scripture verses: 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. This Scripture quoted often for good reason, it is at the
core of our faith as Christians. This is a Scripture
verse that we should memorize.
Throughout
the Old Testament (aka Old Covenant) God made promise after promise after
promise to be faithful to His people saying I
will be your God and you will be my people. The story in the Old Testament
and for us is that we are not always faithful to God, sometimes we turn away.
Yet, even when we turn away from God, from our promise/covenant with Him, He is
still there waiting for us to return, waiting for us to accept His love.
What is
so meaningful and radical about today’s Gospel is that, in the Person of Jesus,
God lays out a New Covenant, a New Testament, a new way of being in relationship
with God. In this New Covenant, God Himself comes to us and takes our place by
dying for us. Jesus takes away the sins of the world by dying with them and
rising from them, conquering sin/death and offering us eternal life and
relationship with God. He died at a particular time and place but the effects
of his suffering, death and resurrection (we call this the Paschal Mystery) are
eternal. Even though we sin in new and creative ways today, He has already died
for them and taken them onto Himself if we allow Him. How do we allow Jesus to
take away our sins? By remembering and celebrating the Paschal Mystery in our
life; walking with him to the cross, making sacrifices if love in our life to
lay down our own lives like Jesus for others. When we die with Jesus He
promises us that we will rise with Him into eternal life.
This is
not easy. As the Gospel goes on to say, the
light came into the world but people preferred darkness to light. We are
called to be a people of the light and need to concretely and measurably
practice turning away from the dark places in our life this Lent and embracing
the light!
Questions
for Reflection and Discussion
-What are you doing to grow closer to
God this Lent? (FAST. PRAY. GIVE)
-How does what you are doing for Lent
help you to grow closer in your personal relationship with Jesus?
-How does what you are doing for Lent
help you to embrace the light in your life or to let go of and turn from the
darkness?
This
week…
-Today ask someone else what they have
decided to do this Lent and share what you have committed to do.
-Come up with a concrete way to remind
yourself of your Lenten commitment (i.e. set an alarm to remind you, make it a
point of dinner conversation, ask someone to check in with you about it, etc.)
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