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1.
2 Chronicles 36: 14-16,19-23
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2.
Ephesians 2:4-10
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Gospel:
3:14-21
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God's work as the work of great value
It happened that a grimy
painting was hanging for decades in one of the religious house. Nobody paid it
much attention about it until a visitor, an expert, recognized it as a work of
a great Roman Painter, Caravaggio. That painting was all about the arrest of
Jesus, this painting now is almost depicted in different parts of the world as
one of the symbol for Christian worship. All the years when it hung in the dining room of the religious house, it
went on unrecognized.
In our today's second
reading, St. Paul says that, " we are God's work of art, created in Christ
Jesus to live the good life." Like that Caravaggio painting, our worth
value can go unnoticed even to ourselves. It becomes difficult to think of
ourselves as the works of art; yet God sees us as works of art, in progress.
Like the person who spotted the painting's
value, God knows our true worth, and through the inspired words of Isaiah says,
" You are precious in my sight, and I love you." If we know ourselves
as precious in God's sight, it gives foundation to our hope.
We are being invited to
think of others as the work of art too, in this way. In life there are people
whom we value, whom we treasure, and furthermore whose worthy is beyond price.
What happens when someone is precious to us? How do we treat that person? The
answer is clear, we never treat these people as customers or clients, rather we
try our best to do something good and pleasing to them. We will travel a
distance to see them; we will stay up half the night with them if they are ill;
we will defend them and protect them as best as we can. We keep faithful to
them, even at cost to ourselves. We value them, simply, for who they are.
Our experience of
loving others gives us a clue of how the Lord relates to us. God loves us in a
very unique way that even does not count any cost. The gospel puts it clear: " God so
loved the world that He gave his only
Son." Or as Paul puts it, " God so loved us that he was generous with
his mercy." We are so valued that God did not spare his own Son, but gave
him up to save us all. So it is not surprising that the cross became
Christianity's dominant symbol. It is not the fact that we always glorify
suffering , but that we recognize in the cross just how far God is prepared to
go for love of us.
0 Response to "HOMILY FOR THE 4th SUNDAY OF LENT IN YEAR B"
Chapisha Maoni