Fourth Sunday of Lent

A Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is here.

The focus is medicinal suffering and virtues needed to live the truth.

Here is an excerpt from the first Lectionary reading (32):

• The sacred writer shows God’s punishment to be medicinal. The Chosen People’s suffering caused them to turn back to God who was merciful. The Chosen People collectively did penance for some seventy years—“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,” that is, until the people had made up for their disobedience to the Covenant.
• Our penance only makes sense if it, too, is medicinal. This is to say, we should see both our involuntary suffering and our voluntary penances as ways for ourselves and others to be healed of the effects of sin and to grow in virtues.