4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) year B

What do I want? Wealth, joy, or love? On this Sunday, the narrative feature to explain the message of the readings can be useful to us.

One time, three old men sat outside a woman’s house. After hours of sitting there, the woman went out and invited them to enter her house and have something to eat. They asked the woman, “is your husband inside the house?”, she answered no. The three men replied to her, “No, we can’t come in”. The woman went back into the house. Later in the evening, her husband came and found the three old men sitting outside the house. As soon as he entered the house, his wife told him the story about the three men. Then, he asked the woman to invite them again in the house and give them food. The woman went to the three old men and said to them, “my husband is now in the house, please come in and have something to eat”. The first man introduced himself as Wealth and said no, and the second man as Joy and also said no, while the third one as Love and like the first two he said no. Then the woman asked, why? The three answered the woman, “Go and discuss with your husband, which one of us you want in your house”.

In today’s readings, the depth of God’s Love for his people is expressed. And, as we continue our Lenten journey towards Easter and Pentecost, we have now come to the fourth Sunday of Lent. Traditionally is also known as the “Laetare Sunday” (Sunday of joy). On this Sunday, we are reminded that true joy is not in wealth or material things, but from God’s Love. In the Gospel, God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). St. Paul describes the depth of God’s Love upon us. He explains the incarnation, life, and death of Jesus, the Mystery of God’s Love that restores us to the life we were meant to live.

Christian Action This Week: Manifest God’s Love to others that generates true joy in our lives.