4th Sunday of Lent Year A Laetera Sunday By Tobe Eze

4th Sunday of Lent Year A

Laetera Sunday
FIRST READING
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a

SECOND READING
Ephesians 5:8—14

GOSPEL

John 9:1—41

THEME: God's ways are not our ways.

What Is Laetare Sunday? Laetare Sunday (/lɛˈtɑːrɛ/), so called from the incipit of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" ("Rejoice, O Jerusalem"), from Isaiah 66:10, is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Again, Laetare Sunday is the popular name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The name comes from the first word of the Introit or entrance antiphon of the Mass for that day: Since there are six Sundays in Lent, Laetare Sunday falls just past the midpoint of Lent. For that reason, Laetare Sunday has traditionally been viewed as a day of celebration, on which the austerity of Lent is briefly lessened; the organ is played, flowers are allowed on the altar, and the purple vestments of Lent, signifying penance, are set aside and, as on Gaudete Sunday in Advent, rose ones are used instead. Continue Reading

God works in mysterious ways. God in the first reading showed us one of the ways he works. Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint the one to replace King Saul. Samuel and Jesse were examining and choosing from the physical point of view. In the gospel the apostles also were seeing from human thinking. In the second reading St. Paul warns us about that. In the first reading, Jesse brought out his sons he thought that they can carry out the task of ruling the people of Israel and Samuel also was rushing to succumb to that but God brought them to what happened in the gospel of Matthew, It is not flesh and blood that revealed this to you. (Matthew 16:17), God showed them that he is the one who works and sees from different angle, and he asked Samuel not to make that mistake. He heard the Lord and Jesse sent for David and the Lord chose him. Why did God choose David? The first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians has everything we need to know about it. "But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong." – (1 Corinthians 1:27) God chose David a small young lad to shame men like Goliath who thought he was the only strong man on earth. The people of Israel suffered many tribulations from the people of Philippi in the hands of Goliath. God kept quiet for David to grow up a bit and when the appointed time came God showed how he works. In the Gospel the apostles asked the question we ask always. Why is this man blind? Is it his parents’ sin or his own sin? But Jesus changed their notion of everything that happens must be caused by sin. He directed them to the right path which is. For God to be praised. We ask this same question almost everyday of our life. God what have I done wrong to deserve this? Why me Lord? These questions come only when bad things or situations visit us. We do not ask God why he is giving us life everyday because it is our birthright. God is owing us life. We are too righteous to die or bad things or situations to visit us. Those who die or those who suffer one problem or the other are chronic sinners. That is their own heritage or birthright. We do not say again Lord why are you blessing me? Carry all these blessings to another person. But once it is a bad thing, we will wish it to our neighbours. Why me? This should go to Nkechi.

It is not because of our righteousness that God is giving us life and every other blessings he gives us every day, it is only out if his mercy. Everyday should be a day of Thanksgiving for us. No matter the situation or situations we find ourselves, we should remember that God has a plan or plans for that. God allowed blindness to befall the man in the Gospel for his name to be praised. Ọnọdọ ụfọdụ anyị n' ahụ onwe anyị bụ maka otito nke Chukwu.  He promised us that he will be with us till the end of time (Matthew 28:20). That he will be with us till the end of time is not that hard or bad things will not come our ways. It is only that he will not allow them to harm us. He will not allow his beloved to know decay (Psalm 16:10). He promised us also in Isaiah 43:1-3 that we should fear not in any situation that he is with us that he has done all things for us. Our problems sometimes are because we try to force God to do our wills for us not his will. Onye buru Chi ya ụzọ ọgbagbuo onwe ya n' ọsọ. These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33). We will have many problems but his will is the best. He has overcame the world for us. God's ways are not our ways and his ways are best. Let us try today to see good things from the bad conditions we see ourselves. Let us know that the will of God for us is for good. Let us draw fortunes from our frustrations, let us not fix blames but fix the problems. Let us accept the will of God and all will be well with us.

Happy Sunday

To See more http://tobeeze.blogspot.com