Salvation comes from God's Love

Can you imagine any other line of Scripture more beautiful than this one? "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

Maybe you tire of seeing John 3:16 written on everything from bumper stickers to billboards, and from stadium fan-held signs to tattoos. But when you finally look up the verse it's hard to deny its power and beauty.

This text comes up on a day we used to call "Laetare Sunday." The liturgy officially designates not only Scripture readings for each day, but texts for antiphons (or music) for the entrance and communion rites of Mass. The entrance antiphon for this Sunday is the same as it has been for centuries: " Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite ornnes qui diligitis eam." Taken from Isaiah 66:10-11, it means, "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all of you who love her."

At face value it offers a heartening message to Jerusalem, which will see salvation come Easter day. But this rollickingly upbeat passage also prompted those fasting and doing penance for six weeks to cheer up. They were halfway home! Christ our light is the light at the end of the tunnel.

The liturgy still permits us to wear those rose colored vestments instead of purple on this day. Not the same spirit of celebration you get from, say, a Caribbean cruise, but you get the idea. After all, it's Lent.

Still, if ever a Gospel called for celebration it's this one.

The third chapter of John eavesdrops on a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. The whole dialogue takes place at night and permits Jesus to introduce the role of the Spirit and the promise of new birth.

The opening verses of Sunday' s passage (14-15) compare Jesus to a serpent in the wilderness, contrasting with the cuddly Jesus of most liturgical art. John resurrects the story where Moses cures desert snake bites by making a copper serpent on a pole. The sick who look at the serpent are cured. The Book of Wisdom also recalls this incident (16:5- 7) as a tribute to God's role as savior. The image of the serpent on a pole strikingly foreshadows the role of Jesus on the cross. Those sick with sin who gaze upon the cross find redemption and healing.

Then Jesus interprets the conversation to explain the role of the Son. God sent the Son not for condemnation, but for salvation. This role will reveal the meaning of Easter. The passage implies that the human race receives the Son of God as a divine game of the lady or the tiger. People still wonder about God: condemning judge or loving redeemer? We have to be told that God's purpose is salvation.

What makes this passage so breathtaking is the reason it gives for this saving mission of the Son. (It should be obvious, but sometimes we need to hear the obvious.) It's because God loved us.

Too often we focus the message of salvation on our response. Have we loved God? Have we loved our neighbor? But salvation comes not because of our love. It comes from God' s love. The first letter of John spells it out more clearly (4: 10). "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins." Christians smugly take pride in our record -- we go to church, we participate at Mass, we abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent, we even read The Catholic Key. But all that's just beans. We're not earning God's love. God loved us first.

How deeply did God love us? Enough to send the Son into the world to have the Son experience death -- no, conquer death. John describes Jesus here as God's "only son." John's interest, very likely, lies not in birth certificates, but in the memory of Abraham who loved his "only son," Isaac, but was still ready to sacrifice him. That's love.

Only this realization will help us fully appreciate the mystery of the cross. Good Friday should fill us with the experience of being loved. From that wonderment we respond in love.

What are some of your favorite memories of being loved? What's it like to be loved first? Does it make you want to do something? For what reason? Duty or love?

How does the Church's teaching regarding marriage and family remain faithful to this passage? In what way is marriage a "sacrament" or sign of God's love?

[This article first appeared in The Catholic Key, March 6, 1994 (26/9), p. 15.]