Fourth Sunday in Lent- B

THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM IS NOT CONDEMNED

Good Morning every one and I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate the forth Sunday in Lent. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitor and every one who is here today, dear friends every time we come to Church, we celebrate our faith in God Almighty, every time we come to Church we celebrate our hope in Christ our Lord and Every time we come to Church we celebrate charity in the Holy Spirit.

One day late Bishop Fulton Sheen was asked the difference among faith, hope and charity and he said, “If you clap your hands before my talk, that is called faith. If you clap your hands during my talk, that is called hope and if you still clap your hands after my talk that is called charity”.

Dear friends, every time we bless ourselves saying, “Father, Son and the Holy Spirit”, we think about our faith in God, Hope in Christ and our Charity in Holy Spirit”. Today’s gospel says that God so loved the world that He sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to us so that those who believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life in Him’. Yes, Those who have faith in God will not die but have life everlasting.
Once I was invited for lunch, while we were eating, I asked the people how come they were not blessing themselves provided I said that blessing. They said, “we did bless ourselves but in discreet. We do not want to be know by all and that is why we used our left hand to make the sign of the Cross”. I looked at them and said, “ we are not living in a Muslim or Hindu country and no one is going to kill us practicing our faith and why do you want to hide your faith and be in discreet?” They said, “It is because we do not feel comfortable”. And the moral of the story should be, “do not hide your faith’ but it became, “do not argue with the people who invited you for dinner and then you have to pay for your meal”.

The season of Lent invites us to develop a strong prayer life which increases our faith in God Almighty and thus every time we touch our forehead to say, ‘in the name of the Father…’ we will celebrate faith in God thinking that God at last sent His Only Son Jesus to save us and when we have faith in Him we will never perish but have life everlasting”.
The elementary school in India where I did my schooling, there were about two thousand students and I was the only Christian with a strange name and one day while the teacher was teaching about Christianity, He talked about Christ and His twelve disciples. Every time he wanted to know more about Christ and Christianity, he asked me and though I did not know much about Christianity, I made up many good stories. That incident made me read more of Christ and the bible. Those non-Christians indirectly gave me hope in Christ. Because of them, I began to believe in Christ more and more. God’s plan is so different and He can inspire us in different ways. The bible says that God sent His Only Son not to condemn the world but to save the world through His Only Son.
The season of Lent invites us to deepen our faith in God through the Lenten discipline of fasting. Fasting is not all about abstaining from meat and not eating it is also celebrating life, having hope in Christ our Lord.

Today’s gospel says that the light came into the world so that people would have life but instead they loved the darkness. People loved the darkness because their deeds were evil not a charitable one. Those who extend their hands to help others live in the light and experience God in Christ. Some times we try our best to be nice to others and thus we end up helping wrong people. These days we hear the famous add, “Make Kony Famous”. It is about Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony who abducted more than 30,000 children and boys to kill people and girls to sex trade and the question is who funded him? How did buy all the weapons and guns? Where did he get his money? That is why before we help, it is very important to know the organization. So when we extend our hands, let us ask the Spirit to guide us.
So dear friend, as we enter into the fourth Sunday of lent, let us celebrate our faith in God, hope in Christ and our charity in the Holy Spirit. Amen.