Third Sunday of Lent

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

God Chose to Reveal Divine Love

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 1:22, 23

The powerlessness of the manger became the powerlessness of the cross. People jeer, laugh at him, spit in his face, and shout: “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). He hangs there, his flesh torn apart by lead-filled whips, his heart broken by the rejection of his friends and abuse from his enemies, his mind tortured by anguish, his spirit shrouded in the darkness of abandonment – total weakness, total powerlessness. That’s how God chose to reveal to us the divine love, bring us back into an embrace of compassion, and convince us that anger has been melted away in endless mercy.

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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