Fourth Sunday of Lent-Laetare Sunday
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
Midpoint of Lent. Today we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent, the traditional midpoint of the 40 days of the penitential season. Actually, there are 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (inclusive). But the counting of the 40 days has never included the 6 Sundays of Lent, because, the 40 days have always been days of modified fasting, and Sunday was never a day of fasting since it is the Lord’s Day. Moreover, though Good Friday and Holy Saturday are not technically “Lent” but the “Triduum, even so, the Triduum retains the penitential character of Lent, so there are still 40 the penitential days. Confused? Sorry.
That being said, this is the midpoint Sunday of Lent, and is called “Laetare Sunday,” “laetare” meaning “rejoice.” It is considered a sort of a slight lifting of the austerity and somberness of Lent as Holy Mother Church reminds us to lift our gaze to see that beyond the Cross is the Resurrection; in the midst of our sorrow for our lives of sin we also rejoice in the forgiveness and new life won by the Paschal Mystery. The Rose Vestments symbolize this: the dark purple of repentance and sorrow mingled with the light of forgiveness and joy.
Halfway now, I know some of us are struggling to keep the penances we set for ourselves for Lent, and others have procrastinated in choosing a penance. Ok ladies and gentlemen, we still have half of Lent left to rededicate or increase our efforts to keep Lent holy. If you haven’t chosen a penance yet, do it! If you’re struggling to keep your penances because they’re too hard, change to something that is challenging but doable for you. And if you just haven’t been trying, pick up your cross! Finally, if your penances have been easy to do, then add some more penances.
“For Your Penance, Say One Hail Mary.” In order to be forgiven our sins in the Sacrament of Penance three things are required of every sinner/penitent: 1) contrition, 2) confession of our sins, and 3) satisfaction. Most of us understand contrition (being sorry) and confessing our sins, but you may not be familiar with the term “satisfaction” in this context. “Satisfaction” here refers the real effort to make up for our sins, and comes in two ways: “reparation” and “expiation” Let’s look a little closer at this.
Many sins clearly harm other people, e.g., we stole something from them, we hurt their feelings, etc.. Justice requires we make restitution, or “reparation” in some way, the best we can. So, if we’ve stolen something we give it back. Maybe it was something we did long ago and we can’t give it back; instead, we can, for example, donate to a charity as an effort toward that end.
But as the Catechism reminds us, “sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must ‘make satisfaction for’ or ‘expiate’ his sins. This ‘act of expiation’ is also called an act of ‘penance.’”
So, when a priest gives a (act of) “penance” in confession, many people wonder how when something as small and simple as “saying three Hail Marys” can serve as an adequate satisfaction. But remember, we could never do enough penance to pay for all our sins—only Jesus can do this, and he did this on the Cross. The penance received in confession is a small but important personal effort to make satisfaction.
Moreover a simple and clear penance, such as some short prayers, makes a good practical penance because: 1) if done devoutly they can be an important first step forward toward God, 2) they are more likely to be done immediately, so that the penance won’t be forgotten and the penitent can immediately renew the life of grace, and 3) they avoid the confusion of more ambiguous or ambitious penances, so the penitent won’t be wondering, “did I do enough?” “did I do too much?” “did I do it right?”
Lenten Series and Shroud Exhibit. Every Wednesday at the 7pm Mass I’ve been giving a series of Lenten homilies on “The Wounds of Jesus’ Passion.” I started with the wounds of the Scourging, then moved to the Crown of Thorns, then the Carrying of the Cross, and this week I will discuss the “Wounds of the Nails.”
During these homilies I’ve often referred to the image of the Shroud of Turin. If you don’t know, the Shroud is a centuries old linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man that many believe to be Jesus of Nazareth. Many scientific studies have been done to confirm or debunk this belief, and I would maintain the bulk of the evidence seems to confirm. I think it is the miraculous image of the Crucified and Buried Christ.
But see for yourself: all during Lent until Easter Sunday the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC is sponsoring the “National Shroud of Turin Exhibit.” “Tracing the movement of the Shroud in history, the exhibit explores what the Shroud reveals about salvation, drawing from both Sacred Scripture and scientific research. The exhibit also includes a replica of the Shroud of Turin…, a sculpture entitled The Sign that renders a life-size, three-dimensional image of the Man of the Shroud, over 40 gallery panels containing images and text, and prayer resources.”
As St. John Paul II observed during his 1998 visit to the Shroud in the Cathedral of Turin:
“Contemplation of that tortured Body helps contemporary man to free himself from the superficiality of the selfishness with which he frequently treats love and sin. Echoing the Word of God and centuries of Christian consciousness, the Shroud whispers: believe in God’s love, the greatest treasure given to humanity, and flee from sin, the greatest misfortune in history.”
That is exactly the intention of my Lenten Series too. So go see the exhibit, but also join us this Wednesday at 7pm Mass.
Pope Francis. Did you see this story, here reported (excerpt) by Reuters? “Pope Francis came so close to death at one point during his 38-day fight in hospital …that his doctors considered ending treatment so he could die in peace, the head of the pope’s medical team said.
“After a breathing crisis on February 28 that involved Francis nearly choking on his vomit, ‘there was a real risk he might not make it,’ said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital….
“‘We had to choose if we would stop there and let him go, or to go forward and push it with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the highest risk of damaging his other organs…In the end, we took this path,’ he said….
“Francis has been prescribed a further two month period of rest…to fully heal.”
Pray for the Holy Father.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles