4^th Sunday of Lent B, March 14, 2021; 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21 (32)

Today’s Gospel gives us the very well-known passage: “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.” However, lots of people who hear this passage fail to understand the full meaning: that this passage is about God saving us from our sinfulness through the gift of God’s Son, Jesus, who would die for us on the cross.

Today’s homily is another installment of explaining parts of the Mass. Today we journey past the sign of the cross, the 2 great mysteries of our faith, The Trinity and the Cross, and we move to the Penitential Act, as we call to mind our sins, which separate us from God, recognize our need for God’s help, and our need to be saved.

It is through the Penitential Act that we ask for God’s mercy upon us. Normally, at our Masses, here at Divine Providence, we pray or sing Kyrie, Eleison and Christe, Eleison, which means, “Lord, have mercy and Christ, have mercy”. We ask for God’s mercy to help us acknowledge our sins and prepare us to hear God’s Word, in the scriptures and share Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

During Lent, we usually substitute what’s called the Confiteor as an option for our Penitential Act. In the Confiteor we confess that we are sinners in our thoughts, actions, and lack of actions, we ask for the intercession of Mary, the angels and saints, and our brothers and sisters, and we strike our breasts 3 times as a sign of penance.

Outside of the Lenten and Advent season the Penitential Act is immediately followed by the Gloria, the same hymn sung by the angels to the shepherds heralding the birth of the baby Jesus, (which we hear in the readings at Christmas), and should help us remember that the Incarnation, Jesus birth, God made man, is God’s response to our sinfulness.

The Gloria was originally sung as part of the Christmas liturgy, but it was later added to all solemnities and feasts because of the joy expressed in the coming of Jesus into the world for our salvation.

In the Gloria, we acknowledge, in song, who Jesus is: the Lamb of God, the Only-begotten Son, the Holy one, sitting at the right hand of the Father.
We also acknowledge what Jesus has accomplished for us: he takes away the sins of the world, Jesus offers us mercy, and he hears our prayers as our mediator with the Father.
And, most importantly, this hymn, the Gloria, allows us to worship God and acknowledge his divinity as we sing, “we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you.”

The Penitential Act and the Gloria are seemingly routine moments of the Mass that we often become too familiar with. However, in these moments the Lord invites us to bring our hearts and minds into the deep mystery of our faith: that as scripture tells us – God so loves us that he sent his Son, Jesus, so that we might not perish from sin, but have eternal life with God.

What an amazing gift, God giving us his Son, Jesus, and Jesus loving us so much that he willingly gave his life so that we could be free from sin and have a chance at eternal life in heaven. Who would have thought all of that could have been found in that one small scripture passage and in those 2 simple parts of the Mass. Something to really think about and to truly be thankful for, during Lent and all year round.