Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Lent: Laetáre Sunday
Christ Healing the Blind Man by Sebastiano Ricci (1659 - 1734), from the Sottish National Gallery
Entrance Antiphon for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
Rejoice, ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her.
V: I rejoiced when they said to me:
”Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
(Isaiah 66:10; Psalm 122:1)
In today’s Gospel Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth (John 9).
Is this simply another classic example of Jesus working on the Sabbath?
Is Saint John scolding the Pharisees for their religious conservatism and need to observe all the rules or is something else happening here?
Why does the Church give us this reading for the 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetáre Sunday? What is the connection with the joy spoken of in the entrance antiphon?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenging everyone to rethink how we see space and time by reinterpreting the sabbath rest in light of the joy of the jubilee, the focus shifts to resting in Christ through contemplation.
Introduction
Scripture can be understood in a literal sense or in a spiritual sense, which is always founded on the literal sense. One of the spiritual senses of Scripture is typological. This method for interpreting Scripture looks to Old Testament types and figures fulfilled and perfected in Christ and/or the Church. These types or figures can usually be broken down into persons, events, or institutions.
In the Old Testament, we have persons, such as Abraham, Noah, and Solomon, pointing to Christ because “There is something greater than Solomon here” (Mt 12:42/Lk 11:31). With events we have the famous Crossing of the Red Sea as a type for Baptism or the Manna in the Desert as a type for the Eucharist. With institutions, the Temple is an institution sanctifying space, whereas the Sabbath is an institution that sanctifies time. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Colossians, “Let no one pass judgment on you in matters of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or sabbath. These are shadows of things to come; the reality belongs to Christ” (Col 2:16-17). Implied by St. Paul’s statement is the reality that Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath; He is our true rest.
The institution of the Sabbath, a shadow, points to the reality found in Christ.
This same expression finds voice in The Spirit of the Liturgy, when Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI states, “...at the moment of Jesus’ death, the function of the old Temple comes to an end… Worship through types and shadows, worship with replacements, ends at the very moment when the real worship takes place: the self-offering of the Son, who has become man and ‘Lamb’, the ‘Firstborn’, who gathers up and into himself all worship of God, takes it from the types and shadows into the reality of man’s union with the living God” (p.43-44). The Old Testament sacrifices could make satisfaction, bring true redemption, or atonement, but they are fulfilled in the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.
The Sabbath Rest
In the creation account of Genesis, we learn that God rested on the seventh day. “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation” (Gen 2:3). God gives us an example, showing us, His creatures, the importance of rest from our labors. Of course, God is pure act—actus purus (STh I, q9, a1). Leaving us this example, we too need to rest from our labors, which is why “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk 2:27). His point is that the law of sabbath rest was intended to benefit mankind. Observing the sabbath is subordinate to the needs of man, who was not created merely in order to observe the sabbath. By proclaiming Himself “Lord of the Sabbath” Christ claims authority over this divine institution. God is not at rest but “at work,” acting. This insight changes the notion of the Sabbath observance; it cannot be idleness but must involve a new solidarity with God through Christ Jesus, which is why works of mercy are especially appropriate on the Lord’s Day.
Somewhat strangely, after the Creation narrative, we do not hear anything about the seventh day or Sabbath rest until Exodus. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, the sabbath was given to them. Moses tells the Israelites, “On six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy to you as the sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Anyone who does work on that day shall be put to death” (Ex 35:2).
When the Lord sends quail and manna for the people to eat, Moses commands them, “Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, it will not be there.” (Ex 16:25-26) The passage continues, “The Lord has given you the sabbath. That is why on the sixth day he gives you food for two days. Each of you stay where you are and let no one go out on the seventh day. After that the people rested on the seventh day.” (Ex 16:29) This biblical passage points out two main ideas about the sabbath: 1) the sabbath is a day of rest (anapausis) belonging to the Lord and 2) the sabbath is the seventh day (hebdome).
The day of rest is fulfilled in Christ. In His own words, “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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matt 11:28-30) The Church Fathers repeatedly emphasize that the true meaning of the Sabbath is not a rest from physical work or idleness, but rather to cease sinful works.
Christianity is the true sabbath, the true seventh day. As Saint John says in his Gospel prologue, “while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The rules and regulations given to the Israelites point to the fulfillment in Jesus Christ, lived through grace and truth. In Exodus 31: 13 God tells Moses, “You must also tell the Israelites: Keep my sabbaths, for that is to be the sign between you and me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the Lord, who make you holy.” The sign of the sabbath remains as through the teachings and example of Christ the true meaning of the sabbath comes to light. As the Catechism states, “The Sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday, which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ” (CCC 2190). The Resurrection takes place on the eighth day, which became for Christians a reminder of the day Christ rose from the tomb. In a way, the seven days are the image of the time of this world, and the eighth day of everlasting life. Sunday is the commemoration of this memorial of the Resurrection, worship of God, and a reminder of the world to come.
Jubilee Joy
In Leviticus God establishes a “sabbatical year” meaning every seventh year, the land shall have a complete rest. Additionally, “every seven weeks of years--seven times seven years,” meaning every 50 years, would be a “jubilee year.” This year would be sacred, “liberty in the land for all its inhabitants,” no sowing, reaping, redemption of property, houses, and slaves. This year was to be a year marked by great joy and freedom.
How does this relate to the joy spoken of in the entrance antiphon?
Remember the Biblical passage where Jesus reads the passage from the Prophet Isaiah about bringing glad tidings to the poor, setting captives free, giving sight to the blind, and a year of rejoicing? Jesus concludes by saying, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” (Lk 4:21) to the astonishment and wonder of all.
Jesus challenged his listeners and challenges us to rethink how we see time and space. He is transforming everything. All of the prophecies of the Old Testament are being fulfilled right now in Him. He is inaugurating a new day, a new joy, a new creation. He reinterprets the day in terms of the Jubilee, revealing what His words meant through signs. By healing the blind man, we now see how the sabbath rest brings joy to those who truly keep it. The miracle of Jesus healing the blind man sets the blind man free of his ailment (blindness) so that he too can rejoice and share in the jubilation of God.
The entrance antiphon for the Fourth Sunday of Lent exclaims, “Rejoice, Jerusalem… Be joyful, all who were mourning: exult and be satisfied….” (Is. 66:10-11). In the Collect, an explanation of how to rejoice is given: “with prompt devotion and eager faith…hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come.” In the context, the prophet is so sure about the future glory of Sion that he invites the present mourners and the future blessed to rejoice with her. We know that the joy of the Resurrection is in sight on the horizon, therefore we are filled with jubilation. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord is your strength! (Nehemiah 8:10).
The ancients had a distinction between Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is simply defined as the minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and year-to-year measurement of time. The linear fashion in which time is kept. Alternately, Jesus inaugurates a new way of keeping time because He has broken into our cyclical day with kairos. The monotony of our routine has been broken. Kairos is the opportune moment of grace, a qualitative measure of time. So that at every moment a new creation exists because Jesus Christ is the 8th day, the fulfillment of the Sabbath, crushing the tyranny of routine and in hope, there is now joy in the new circumstances of life. This joy anticipates the life to come where Christ is truly present to us. Jesus is the very purpose of the Sabbath.
The Christian life is a struggle to live in kairos time. Saint Paul understands this battle well when he encourages the Ephesians, “Look carefully then how you walk… making the best use of the time,” (Ephesians 5:15-16). The best use of the time is responding to those moments of grace, which break into our cyclical time. The Sabbath sanctified time as we look toward eternity and it remains a struggle to keep the Resurrection in our view, to not fall into the trap of spiritual blindness. The Christian Sunday is the Lord’s day anticipating the good that is to come, the interplay between already-not yet.
Early Christians took this spiritual reality of the true Sabbath being not of this world, but of the world to come and saw it mysteriously present under the sacramental signs of the Eucharist, which sanctifies time and place. While the Sabbath was considered as a day of rest and contemplation, the Lord’s Day of the Christians was a day of public work centered around the Liturgy and the Eucharist.
Conclusion
In The Spirit and the Liturgy Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI reflects, “All time is God’s time” (p. 92). Living in kairos (God’s time) is the ideal we strive for every day. Because all time is God’s time, as a result, all time is filled with supernatural, divine meaning. Life is not meant to be a monotony of moments. No, each moment is unique. Just as each place is unique, each moment is unique, characterized by its relationship to the sacred, inviting humanity to participate in the holiness of God Himself, sanctifying time and space. Later on, in the same chapter Ratzinger states, “Sunday is thus, for the Christian, time’s proper measure, the temporal measure of his life” (p. 97). The tick-tock of the clock is not meant to be a measure of our lives, but rather how we spend our Sunday, how well we are resting in the Lord, how much our lives are ordered to works of mercy, and our growth in holiness. When our Sundays are focused on loving God, our loves are rightly ordered and the joy permeates us. The joy of living in the light requires constantly focusing our direction. It requires transformation in Christ, so that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Cf. Gal. 2:20).
The Psalmist prays, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” (Ps 27:4). This singular desire can be captured in Aquinas's understanding of man’s greatest dignity, contemplation of the truth. Augustine echoes this sentiment in his City of God, “We should not be so wrapped up in our activities that we no longer want to contemplate God” (19.19). This statement places the primacy of contemplation above any other activity. Perhaps this is the deeper meaning of today’s Gospel. We live in a spiritual blindness if we place activities above contemplation, resting in God, gazing on the beauty of the Lord.
Bringing these themes together, we can see the fullness of today’s healing miracle. Our Sundays are made for contemplation, to remind us of where we are headed, eternal life, resting in Jesus. When we engage in works of mercy and not idleness, we allow Sundays to be “God’s time” and we experience the true joy of the Resurrection. The true Jubilee joy cures us of our spiritual blindness, giving us every reason to “Rejoice, Jerusalem… Be joyful, all who were mourning: exult and be satisfied….” (Is. 66:10-11).
Are we blind to the true meaning of Sunday?
References
Aquinas, Saint Thomas. Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. Translated by the Fathers Of The English Dominican Province. Benziger Brothers. 1947.
Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church: revised in accordance with the official Latin text promulgated by Pope John Paul II. United States Catholic Conference. 2000.
Danielou, Jean. The Bible and the Liturgy. University of Notre Dame Press. 1956. Chapters 2 and 14.
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE). Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. 2010.
Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. The Spirit of the Liturgy. San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2014.
