Dear Friends,
Today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, is known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is Latin for rejoice and is the first word of the Entrance Antiphon for this Sunday. The vestment color changes to Rose today as this is a Sunday of joy amid the penitential practices of Lent. It is an anticipation of Easter which is drawing nearer.
March 19 is the solemn feast of Saint Joseph, which is liturgically moved this year to Monday, March 20. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin and foster father of Jesus, declared Patron of the Universal Church and Guardian of the Redeemer is also the patron of workers and carpenters. We invoke his powerful intercession for ourselves, our families, our country, and world. Saint Joseph, pray for us!
In our readings this weekend, we hear about the anointing of David as King of Israel; Saint Paul’s reminder that we were once darkness but now are light in the Lord, therefore we are to live as children of the light; and, Jesus’ curing a man born blind. Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. Truly He is the Son of God who came to search out all of humanity lost in sin. As He gave sight to the blind man in the Gospel, so through His Sacraments, He gives us light to see, understand, and experience the profound mercy and love of God in our own personal lives. We are not orphans, left on our own to try to figure things out. Jesus is with us still and leads us along a sure and certain path.
If we model our lives in accord with all that is going on in the world, the craziness, and the very tragic and sad abandonment of God’s Will and His Way, we are in darkness for sure. And it seems that darkness is growing more profoundly intense. However, into that very darkness, Jesus entered and by His passion, death, and resurrection He conquered the world and the darkness. By clinging to Him, walking in His footsteps, surrendering our wills to the Will of His and our heavenly Father, we live in light, in the goodness, beauty, and truth of God. Counter-cultural to this world and at odds with it but in union with God, preparing for eternal life.
This is what all the Saints understood and how they lived their lives through the darkness of their times. Let us courageously go forth, embracing the Cross of Jesus, and loving others empowered by His grace and love for us.
God bless you, God love you,
Monsignor McCulken
