Laetare! Rejoice! Rose colored vestments!
Wait a minute, we’re not supposed to be joyful until Easter. Lent is a somber time…penance, fasting, almsgiving.
Yet the Church, in its liturgical wisdom, tells us to pause, take stock. How am I doing in this Lenten journey of mine? Logically, this Laetare Sunday means Lent is half over. Hurray? That also means I can take a breath and rejoice that I have come thus far doing well in my Lenten resolutions. And if I haven’t, I can rejoice that I still have the second half of Lent to revisit those intentions of mine, become who I said I would become, bask in God’s tremendous love that keeps me going.
Jesus told Nicodemus that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. That was the whole point of that terrible, yet Good Friday. And Easter tells us that, yes, it’s that simple…BELIEVE in God’s love, trust that God’s love is enough, always, to see you through anything. St. Paul tells us that it was that love that brings us back to life when we stray, it is by grace we have been saved.
So, rejoice, be thankful for what has been; be grateful for what is still to come!
Sister Cathy Fedewa, CSFN
