Through Repentance To Joy
On this Fourth Sunday in Lent, it may be puzzling to us why the Church relaxes some of her Lenten laws and instructs us to be joyful. In the midst of the rigorous Lenten fast, when men should bewail their sins and do penance for them, and sounds of mirth and joy are hushed, the church now bids us rejoice. The very first word of the Introit is Laetare, Be ye joyful; the vestments are not the usual penitential color of violet, but are changed to rose for this one day; there are flowers on the altar, and in quires and places where they sing, the chanting is accompanied today by the sound of the organ.
On this last Sunday before Passiontide begins, the Church wants her children to rejoice, to forget penance for a brief moment and turn their hearts to thoughts of gladness. We can easily see the source of today’s rejoicing if we turn our thoughts to the results of our penance. What comes from the rigors of this season, the self-denial and curbing of the flesh the Church imposes on us? What comes from the introverted examination of our sinful desires, our temptations, and yes, even our sins? We have the opportunity today to see beyond the sorrow and need for reparation that we have during the rest of Lent and Passiontide, and instead, we briefly look to the spirit behind these voluntary and imposed penances we are undergoing. We think now of the true joy, the peace of mind, that is restored to us, or at least maintained in us, by our fasting, our almsgiving, our discomforts and inconveniences. We think of the great burst of jubilant relief that we experience at the words of absolution pronounced over our blackened souls in the confessional.
Today, in other words, is a brief respite from the hardships of Lent and before we begin the sorrow and compassion of the season of Passiontide which follows. It is a day for taking stock of what we have done in the first half of Lent, realizing the unexpected joy that our hardships provided. It’s a time to regroup and renew our enthusiastic embrace of our cross, willingly marching forward into Passiontide with all its horrors and suffering. Finally we are bidden to look beyond all this to the greatest joy of all that comes with our Lord’s Resurrection. He, who suffered so much more than we do, will rise from the dead, just as our souls rise from the dead every time our mortal sins are absolved in the confessional, just as our own bodies will surely rise from the dead at the end of time to rejoin those souls in heaven. Truly, we have much to rejoice about!