FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
The fourth Sunday of Lent is ‘Laetare Sunday’, the
mid-point of our Lenten journey. The Latin word
‘laetare’ means rejoice and this Sunday corresponds
to ‘Gaudete Sunday’ in Advent. We rejoice in the
gift of our faith, which is rooted in the Good News
of the Gospel. In today’s extract from the Gospel
of St. John Bartimaeus (‘Son of Timaeus’) comes
to that faith gradually through his encounter with
Jesus on the roadside near Jericho. The blind beggar
comes seeking the restoration of the light of his eyes
and goes away having found the light of faith. His
physical healing becomes the prelude to a deeper
journey as Jesus takes him from sight to insight.
We have an advantage over Bartimaeus. We, unlike
him, were born into a community of faith. We have
received the torch from the generations gone before
us. Our responsibility is all the greater then. We are
children of the light, guardians of the flame, charged
with the responsibility of nurturing that flame and
passing it on to those coming after us. We are true
to that challenge when we live as joyful Christians
in the world and produce, in the words of St. Paul to
the Ephesians, ‘every kind of goodness, justice and
truth’. Three weeks from now at the Holy Saturday
liturgy we will renew our Baptismal promises.
May we do so happy in the knowledge that we are
behaving as children of the light.