Today is the fourth week of Lent. We call it Laetare Sunday. Just as in Advent we have Gaudete Sunday, in Lent we also have a ‘joyful’ Sunday. We are still during a time of penance and fasting, however midway through Lent, the Church reminds us that we have reason to be happy, the time of Jesus’ resurrection is near!
Today’s Gospel brings us a message of joy. God loves us so much, that he wants everyone to be saved. God wants this so much, that he sent his son to show us how to live. This was not all. Jesus even suffered a cruel death to save us. A story may help us understand what it means that we were saved by Jesus’ death. There is a story about two childhood friends (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JowBUFltXtg&t=2s). When they grew up, they went their different ways. One became a judge, the other a criminal. One time, the latter ended up in court, and his friend was the presiding judge. The judge felt heartbroken seeing his friend brought to justice. However, he handed him the penalty that befit his crime. As soon as the court sitting ended, the judge went over to his friend and paid for the penalty which he was given. Because he loved his friend, he paid from his own money for a grievance which he did not do.
God is love, he does not condemn us, God wants our salvation. God gives us freedom of choice. This Gospel reading, gives courage and hope. No matter our sin and wrongdoings, Jesus continues to be our light. However, we may choose to walk in the dark. This is our choice. God continues to offer forgiveness. We are all weak and we have our limitations. This should not make us lose hope. We can offer our shortcomings to God and allow him to lead us. When we look at the crucifix, we realise how much God loves us. If we allow ourselves to listen, we can hear Jesus saying: “I have died for you, I love you, I forgive you.” Let us allow Jesus to be our light. We should not be ashamed in front of Jesus; we can lay bare all our sin to him; let us not allow our wrongdoings to keep us walking in darkness and away from God’s mercy.
Today’s Gospel is about God’s great love for us. We will also learn why Jesus became man like us.
- God loves us
- Jesus will not leave us alone
- Jesus is like a light, so that we do not walk in the dark
It is not easy to understand today’s Gospel. Jesus tells us that he had to die on the cross, so that one day, we can live with him in heaven. Jesus became man like us because God loves us a lot.
Have you ever been alone in the dark? How did you feel?
It is not a good feeling to be alone in the dark. It would be better to be in the light, with someone you love. Jesus became man, to be like a light for us. Today, Jesus is telling us, that he wants to be the light which shows us the way to go. When we make a bad choice, it is like we are telling Jesus, that we do not want to follow the way that he is showing us. When we make a bad choice, we generally want no one to know. If for example, you are alone and you broke your mum’s favourite vase, what is the first thing that you will try to do? Most probably, you will try to hide it. When something is hidden, it is in a dark place, where no one can see it. We try to hide our wrongs, so that no one sees them.
This is what Jesus is telling us. When we choose to do something which is wrong, we move into darkness so as to hide what we did! Jesus loves us immensely. He does not want us to be in the dark. Jesus does not want us to hide our wrong choices. He wants us to be sorry and to ask forgiveness. He wants us to try not to do this wrong choice again.
God does not leave us on our own, not even when we make wrong choices. However, God wants us to try to do good. Just as light enables us to see the way ahead, God gives us the help we need to be able to make the right choices.
Today’s activity will act as a reminder of God’s love. With your parents’ help, cut out the pictures from the handout. To be firmer, either print it directly onto construction paper or else fix it on construction paper and cut it. Cut out the dotted line. Write your name in the empty heart. Punch holes as shown. Draw your face or fix a photo of yourself. You may colour God, the hearts and yourself. Pass the string or ribbon through the holes of the heart and hang them onto God’s picture, as shown. Put your picture in God’s arms, so that God gives you a big hug. Hang this in your room, so that it reminds you that God loves you and God will never leave you on your own.
Listen to God loves me and before you go to sleep, remember all that you have done during the day, and say sorry to God, for the wrong choices you made, so that you have a good restful sleep, knowing that God loves you and he is with you.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus, about God’s love. Jesus explains the true significance of the fact that he, the eternal Son of God, became man.
- God loves everyone
- God’s love does not change
Who is Nicodemus? Who is this man speaking with Jesus? You may read about him here.
Can we measure love?
Can you measure or weigh how much mummy and daddy love you?
Can you count how much you love mummy and daddy?
If we cannot measure or weigh love, how can we know how much someone loves us?
How do you know that mummy and daddy love you?
How do you show mummy and daddy, that you love them?
God loves us greatly. God loves us so much, that Jesus, his son, became man, like us. God did not need to become man. He became man to show us more clearly how we need to live. Jesus loved and helped all those around him. He never did anything which was bad. Just the same, there were people who did not love Jesus and so they killed him. Jesus died after he suffered a great deal. He died on the cross. We know that Jesus did not remain dead for long. After three days, Jesus rose from the dead.
We will soon celebrate this big feast. When you went to Church today, did you notice that the priest was wearing a different colour? What colour was it? Today’s liturgical colour is pink (it could be that the priest still chose to wear purple instead of pink). However, during this week, the Church chooses this colour to remind us that we will be soon celebrating Easter.
When Jesus suffered, died and rose from the dead, he us a great gift. If we love Jesus and follow his word, when we die, we will be with him in heaven. How great is God’s love for us!
Before Jesus was born, there were many who spoke about God’s love and spoke to the people about how God wanted them to live. We read about these people in the Bible, in the section we call the Old Testament.
Can you name any of these people? (Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Isaiah)
Although these were good people and loved God, they could not give us this great gift, which Jesus gave us, that we can go to heaven.
When Jesus was on earth, he showed us how to live, how to love God and others. He told us that we are to help those in need and that we are to forgive others. We are also to be sorry for our wrong doings. In today’s Gospel, Jesus likens himself to light. When we do something which is wrong, when we sin, it is as if we are choosing to walk where there is darkness. When we sin, we are not close to Jesus, our friend. When we are sorry and ask to be forgiven, we go to confession and try not to repeat this wrong again. In this way we will be friends with Jesus once again and we will walk in the light, Jesus gives us.
Today’s activity will remind us of God’s love. Cut out a strip from the construction paper. From the rest cut out 11 heart shapes of different sizes. Before cutting out the hearts, see below, to know how big the heart needs to be. With your parents’ help, look up the following passages from the Bible. These are not the only quotations, speaking about God’s love, there are many more! You will write each quotation in one of the hearts. You may colour the hearts and strip of paper. Punch a hole in the hearts so that you may hang them up. Punch holes in the strip of construction paper and hang the hearts from here. You may even attach one heart to another. When you are ready, you will have a hanging mobile, which you may put in your room. (Instead of a strip of construction paper, you may use two twigs. Tie them together to form a cross. You may wrap the wool around the twigs to decorate them. You can hang the hearts from these twigs). When you doubt God’s love, read one of these quotations.
These are the quotations to look up:
John 3, 16
John 16, 27
1 John 3, 1
1 John 4, 7
1 John 4, 10-11
Romans 8, 38-39
Hebrews 13, 5
Psalm 86, 15
Psalm 139,5
Isaiah 54, 10
Lamentations 3, 22
Listen to, God’s love is big whilst doing this activity.
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1. Today's Gospel narrates that Jesus encountered a person. Who was this man?
2. According to Jesus, God sent his Son into the world so that...
3. Jesus said that the people who acted wrongly preferred...
4. Those who live the truth, come to...
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