Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves” (Mt 11:28-29).
The Lord invites us to find peace and joy in Him this Sabbath as we set aside time to worship and rest.
“Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God.”
Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word “Shabbat”, which literally means “to stop.” Keeping holy the Sabbath is not just a commandment, but an invitation. An invitation from the Lord to stop our work, stop our worrying, stop our striving. An opportunity to fid rest and to be renewed. A chance to refocus on the things that truly matter - the Lord, family, community. In our culture, Sunday has become a day to “catch up” on everything that didn’t get done during the week, and any time left over is often seen as an opportunity just to “get ahead” for next week. But we Christians have a chance now to remember what it means to keep the Sabbath. During this pandemic the Lord is calling us back to Himself, offering us a chance to reclaim the gift of the Sabbath, reminding us again what it means to “keep it holy.”
A basic principle for observing the Sabbath is only to do things that can be considered “rest” or “worship”. Here are a few ideas to consider to begin more to enter into the Sabbath. Maybe pick just one thing to focus on this Sunday, then next Sunday keep that practice in addition to a second one. And then the next Sunday add a third, to slowly over time begin to enter into this great gift of the Sabbath more and more.
Keep the Lord at the center - read the Mass readings ahead of time, participate in Mass, make more time for prayer, spend some extra time in silence focusing on the Lord
Try not to work - resist the urge to check your email, or catch up on a few things, and leave it for Monday
Plan ahead - take care of what needs to be done before Sunday, so plan the rest of your week to make sure you get the laundry done, have gone grocery shopping, etc.so you don’t have to do any of it on Sunday
Spend the day “screen free” - try to stay off social media, internet news, and your phone as much as possible. If you can’t make it the whole day try to go for at least a few hours
Be intentional with others - if you live with others (ie. family, roommates), is there something you can do together like play a game or go on a hike? If you live alone, can you reach out to a good friend and catch up?
Leisure, not entertainment - try to do things that are life giving; binge-watching a favorite show or playing video games for hours rarely leaves anyone with a new zeal for life. Read a good book, go on a long walk, develop a hobby.
PARTICIPATE
“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). Each Sunday we are called to “keep holy the Sabbath” and although that may look different for right now we will still come together as a St. Ann community through the gift of technology.
MASS READINGS
GIVING
Take a few minutes to give to St. Ann Parish. Please give generously and sacrificially as an act of faith during these difficult times. You can give online:
After giving, offer ways to be generous of your whole self during this trying time for our world.
“Each must do as already determined without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.”
PROCESS
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16)
You may have heard that it is harder on the parent than it is on the child for a parent to allow a child to suffer the natural consequences of his or her actions. This is the very thing we see in the first reading: God asks his people to follow his commandments, even sends them messengers to remind them, and still His people do not follow God’s law. And so the Lord allows the natural consequence to happen: “Their enemies burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects” (2 Chr 36:19). God, in His mercy, and as a loving Father, allows the natural consequence out of His love for His people.
Often remedies are not what we want them to be; they are instead what we need them to be. A sick person might need strong medicine to heal his body, a broken bone might need to be reset to heal properly, someone with a challenging past might need to speak with someone who can help. One of the hardest things is to reveal our wounds to another. We much prefer to live in darkness: “the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light,because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Yet God’s healing requires the light. The Light of the World conquered the Prince of Darkness: let us not live as though darkness has conquered the light. Let us not live as though the darkness is preferable.
Lent is not typically the easiest time of the year, because it often brings to light what we have been worshipping as idols. And yet God and the Church bid us to “Rejoice!” even in the midst of Lent. We rejoice because God loves us, we rejoice because Jesus died for us, we rejoice because we are His chosen people. This fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday - the middle Sunday of Lent dedicated to rejoicing. God, knowing His people very well, gives us this gift just when we need a little extra boost to remain faithful to our disciplines which help us return to Him this Lent. Let us rejoice in the fact that God loves us, and that He is right here with us as we suffer the natural consequences of not loving Him perfectly.
Practice
Sometimes we see and hear of huge declarations of love: Valentine’s Day brings us a plethora of social media posts singing the praises of loved ones, we hear stories of elaborate marriage proposals, we see graffiti with the lovebirds’ initials carved into stone. How often do we bask in God’s love for us? What else does God need to do to get our attention? He has declared his love for us, pursued us as a jealous lover, and sent His very Son to die for us. Our readings for today help us remember that God is the greatest lover of all: “Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!” (Ps 137:6), “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16), “...because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ” (Eph 2:4).
One of the ways we can bask in God’s love for us is by being reconciled with Him through the sacrament of reconciliation. The very word reconciliation suggests being “eyelash to eyelash” with someone - imagine two people so close together that their eyelashes touch. In reconciliation we bring to light the things that have separated us from God, but in bringing them to light these impurities and weaknesses vanish like dew in the midday’s sun. This week, make a commitment to return to God’s mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation, to bring to light what needs healing, and to bask in God’s love for you.
Discussion Questions
Think about how you can continue to reflect on God’s word to you this week, and how you can invite others into the conversation. You can use the questions below for personal reflection, or to grow with others. Be creative! You could consider gathering with friends and family, or starting a group text, or a group FaceTime, to discuss the questions below.
What stands out to you from the readings this week? What might God be speaking to you at this time?
What has helped you enter into Mass more deeply this past week?
What might happen if God did not allow us to experience the natural consequences of our actions?
Think of a time you struggled to bring something to light and were grateful you chose to bring it to light. Why is it often easier to let something remain hidden in the dark? What do you gain by bringing things to light?
When have you recently felt God’s immense love for you? What did that feel like? How did it help you grow closer to the Lord?
When do you plan to receive God’s mercy and love in the sacrament of reconciliation? Our parish will host reconciliation services twice in the upcoming weeks: March 22 (at St. Ann) and March 24 (at St. Ann and all other Dallas diocese parishes).
At this point in the Lenten season we can feel worn out or discouraged by our Lenten disciplines or by our struggle to keep them faithfully. How can God refresh you by His grace so that you can finish Lent strong?