Fourth Sunday of Lent: From Death to Life

by the Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J.

he readings today call attention to a paradox of human living: that signs of death are so very frequently signs of healing and life.

The first reading, from the second book of Chronicles (36:14- 23), was the original ending of the Hebrew Scriptures. But it did not seem right to close with the sad memory of the exile. So a later editor added the concluding verses about the liberation of the exiles, thus adding a note of promise and hope for the future.

Here we have that same paradox: life comes through death. Was it truly possible that God could restore his chosen people, the nation of Israel, at the hand of Cyrus, the first king of Persia? We do not usually look to the enemy for healing and integrity. But God is always breaking through human expectations, and he raised up Cyrus, who allowed deported peoples to return to their homeland.

The second reading (Eph 2:4-10) emphasizes that we cannot save ourselves. Whenever we begin to think that healing is wrought by our own hands, then we are thinking in very restricted categories. But if healing and wholeness are God's work, then the possibilities are as limitless as they are undeserved. Salvation is a gift we accept by faith. God saves us by raising us with Christ through death to life. We are already, the author writes, "citizens of heaven."

The gospel reading (John 3:14-21) begins with an allusion to a legend of Moses lifting up a bronze serpent in the wilderness to cure those bitten by poisonous snakes. A comparison is then drawn with the crucifixion, which for the author was an act of exaltation. Just as the serpent Moses exalted in the desert was a symbol of healing, so is the Son of Man, exalted upon the cross, a sign of healing for all who look upon him. New birth is possible only when Jesus makes the transit to his Father through death, resurrection, and glorification. Death becomes a symbol of new life.

Here again is the paradox of human nature, in which death to selfishness and sin is the way to new life. And in the Christian view, it is precisely through the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ that we attain new birth. Belief is also a necessary factor. Passage from death to life depends not just on Jesus' objective achievement but on our subjective reaction, our response, our appropriation through personal faith.

This is followed by the best-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, chosen by the British and Foreign Bible Society as the pilot verse to be translated into every newly discovered language because it distills the essence of the New Testament: "For God so loved the world that he gave (gave as a gift and gave up to death) his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

The author then spells out the consequences in his view: whoever believes in Jesus will not be judged adversely, but the person who rejects Jesus and his message has already brought about his own condemnation. Eternal life, for this author, is not something that one simply hopes for in the future; it is a deliberate choice here and now.

May the eucharistic liturgy we celebrate in memory of the death and resurrection of our Savior lead us also through death to eternal life.

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Revised: 27 October 1997

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