<p><em>Breath of the Spirit is our electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.&nbsp;<a href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Get Breath of the Spirit scripture reflections in your inbox every week.</a></em></p><p><strong>March 14th 2021: <span>The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)</span></strong></p><p><span>2 Chronicles 36.14-16; 19-23</span><br><span>Ephesians 2.4-10</span><br><span>John 3.14-21</span></p><p><span><em>These reflections are based on the Sunday readings from Lectionary Cycle B in the Church's liturgical calendar. If your community is using the Scrutinies you may be using Cycle A readings this Sunday.</em></span></p><p><strong>Reflection from&nbsp;<strong>Jon Schum</strong><strong><br></strong></strong></p><p>First and Second Chronicles (c. 400 BCE) are considered sacred history i.e. less concerned with precise detail than with the divine dimensions of the unfolding story. The Chroniclers God was not an obscure or hidden God. More than anywhere else God was experienced in worship epitomized by the finest achievement of the Davidic dynasty the Temple in Jerusalem. Todays reading the very end of Second Chronicles summarizes the epic destruction of the Holy City the demolition of the Temple and the ensuing Babylonian exile (587-539 BCE). The Chronicler places the blame for all this on the rampant infidelity of the people and its religious leaders.</p><p>Yet there is a ray of hope. The Babylonians are conquered by the Persian King Cyrus who releases the Israelite people from captivity to return to Jerusalem. Cyrus proclaims Whoever therefore among you belongs to any part of Gods people let them go up and may their God be with them. These words were meant to inspire; for in spite of human failings God continues to beckon to the people and renews the covenant with them. Divine intent can even be achieved even through the devices of a foreign royal power and new life is breathed into the covenant.</p><p>Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and like every seeker there are questions. The lofty and mystical prose of the fourth gospel embodied in Jesus teaching exhibits a highly developed theological reflection. For example the image of the Only Begotten One being lifted up seems to be a clear reference to the cross but the evangelist substitutes a verb that means to be lifted up in glory.</p><p>God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten One that whoever believes may not die but may have eternal life (John 3:17). Gods love exalts and we exalt in Gods love. For God speaks the Word with such perfect love and clarity that the Word becomes one of us and one with us. The incarnate Word is not one of condemnation but of redemption of a covenant renewed again and again.</p><p>Gods intention is clear:<em> God <strong>so</strong> loved the world.</em> Although the image of the world in the gospels is often associated with temptation and sin here we see the world as completely loved and lovable. The whole created order and all who inhabit it are within the divine embrace. It begs the question Are we not also called to love the world?</p><p>As I write in mid-February we have watched disturbing visual testimony of a mob rampage through our nations Capitol. This temple of democracy was trashed and the lives of our elected representatives family and staff members and law enforcement personnel were assaulted and threatened with injury and death. Five persons died. We find ourselves in a dispiriting kinship with other global threats to freedom and self-determination. To reframe the question: If this is also the world we inhabit how are we to love it?</p><p>A good deal of Lenten messaging is around salvation and redemption. Lent aims us in the direction of Triduum events in which we commemorate the God who so loved the world that God handed over the Beloved One that we might be saved. Not condemned but saved...from ourselves and our own schemes. We can characterize this as redemptive love. Redemptive love speaks the language of possibility and deliverance. Redemptive love liberates reclaims and restores. Redemptive love originates in the unrelenting divine desire to be in covenant with us. When we have wandered it calls us back to the commonality and solidarity that we have in Christ and share with the whole of humankind.</p><p>In his encyclical letter <em>Fratelli Tutt</em>i Pope Francis refers to the Latin name for one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: <em>benevolentia</em> an attitude that wills the good of others; it bespeaks a yearning for goodness an inclination towards all that is fine and excellent a desire to fill the lives of others with what is beautiful sublime and edifying (paragraph 112). Perhaps benevolence the virtue is the practice of redemptive love.</p><p>Although not a common word in daily conversation benevolence is rich in meaning: generosity of spirit goodwill compassion. My observation over time is that many in the LGBTQI community have learned benevolence because they have too often suffered the opposite. We take to heart the words of St. Paul writing from prison as he extols the immeasurable riches of Gods gracefor we are Gods handiwork created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance. God <strong>so</strong> loves the world.</p><p>_</p>[caption align=left]<img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/botsjonschum.png'>[/caption]<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em><strong>Jon Schum</strong> and his husband Ron Lacro are longtime Dignity Boston members. Jon has served on its board and liturgy committee and is one of the chapter's ordained presiders. For many years he supervised and provided arts-based therapeutic programming for an elder services agency in Boston. He is currently a co-facilitator of the Aging with Dignity caucus.</em></p><p><em><strong><a href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Get Breath of the Spirit scripture reflections in your inbox every week.</a></strong></em></p>