For God so Loved the World - 4th Sunday of Lent

Today the Church invites us to reflect on God’s love for the world and to be joyful because of it. Today the Church “Rejoices” because even in this penitential season, God still redeems us from our sinfulness. Lent is a time to open ourselves to the overwhelming mystery of God’s totally free and all-inclusive love for us and for all people of this world. Lent invites us to surrender to the mystery, to accept its mind-boggling truth and then to accept the challenge that love means sacrifice and there can be no love without true sacrifice. Today – so close to celebration of Holy Week, we can say this: God did not spare His only Son, but gave him up – to the Cross – that we might have life in Him.