Today is Laetare Sunday, marking the halfway point in Lent. The traditional colors for the day is rose. Laetare Sunday invites us to rejoice and be glad for our redemption is soon to be celebrated on Easter.
The Holy Father’s Angelus message today was: “The Lenten journey that we are living is a particular time of grace, during which we experience the gift of the benevolence of the Lord in what we meet along the way. The Liturgy this Sunday, called “Laetare”, invites us to rejoice and be glad as was proclaimed in the entrance antiphon of the Eucharistic celebration: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her, join together. Exult and be glad, you who were weeping: be filled with the consolation” (cf. Isaiah 66: 10-11). What is the profound reason for this rejoicing? The Gospel today tells us why, in the account of Jesus healing the man born blind from birth. …. The Lord Jesus is the “light of the world” (John 8:12), because in him “shines the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6)…” (My translation of the Italian original.)
Jesus is the Light of the world that heals our blindness and brings us out of the darkness of our sin. Next week we will hear of Lazarus coming out of the darkness of the tomb and into the light of life.
Let us keep each other in our prayers these final weeks of Lent.
