Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-03-14-usccb-year-b-mass-readings
Fourth Sunday of Lent – March 14, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and fifty-fifth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. (Year B) I like to listen to The People’s Pharmacy on the radio or podcast and I also like to read their daily newsletter. They provide insights into the pros and cons of prescription and over-the-counter medicines and details on home remedies, foods, herbs, and supplements that can ease the symptoms of common ailments. Their advice is always based on scientific evidence.
This week’s show (#1249) was a little different than most. Their guest was Dr. Bruce Greyson, a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the UVA School of Medicine. He is also the author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond. Dr. Greyson has devoted over four decades to the scientific study of reports of near-death experiences (NDE) based on first-hand accounts from over 1,000 “experiencers,” which he evaluated using their medical records, objective data, and the observations of family members and close friends.
His award-winning research dispels the theories that he once held that near-death experiences are nothing more than fantasies, hallucinations, or mere fabrications. It also documents the similarities between these experiences regardless of the culture, sex, race, religion, or life-choice differences of the experiencer.
I couldn’t help but link Dr. Greyson’s description of these near-death experiences to our readings from this Sunday. Specifically, as they relate to the lifting up of the serpent and the Son of Man, the light vs. darkness, and our God who is rich in mercy. We don’t all get the benefit of a near-death experience, but we all have already received the gift of the lessons available to us if we choose to read the Scriptures and learn from them.
Looking at What Bedevils Us
In our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (Jn 3:14-15) Jesus was referring to the Book of Numbers’ account of how the people of Israel were rebellious, “So the LORD sent among the people seraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD to take the serpents from us.’ So, Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses: ‘Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover.’ Accordingly, Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered.” (Num 21:6-9)
It was by looking at the bronze image of what had made them ill that the people were saved. Similarly, when we look at the image of the Son of Man lifted up—that is, Jesus on the Cross—we must confront our sins that he took upon himself for our salvation. Why would looking at an image of the source of our trouble help heal us? Bishop Barron points out that often psychologists work with patients to deal with suppressions or repressions of those things that are tormenting them. Looking at what bedevils us can bring about a healing.
Healing through confronting sin and pain is what about a third of people who have near-death experiences described. These experiencers told of going through a review of their entire lives, not only from their own perspective but also through the eyes of the people they interacted with. These reviews could be very painful because they experienced the physical and emotional hurt they may have inflicted on others. Life reviews were also therapeutic when, for example, a victim of child abuse relived the experience through the eyes of her mother who had herself been abused as a child. In these situations, the experiencers came away with an increased compassion and understanding of others. In other cases, they were able to see how the things they valued in life—their honors, accomplishments, and material collections—were trivial, but the times they were helpful or harmful to people and their relationships and interactions with others were of greatest importance. In all cases, the life review gave them a new perspective on the meaning of things in their lives.
Darkness or Light
In our Gospel, as Jesus and Nicodemus continued talking, Jesus told him “that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (Jn 3:19-21)
One of the most common near-death experiences is the light people see which they describe not as a lightbulb or a lamp, but as a living entity that radiates unconditional love and which many people interpret as a deity because of the way it makes them feel. They describe going through a long, dark, enclosed structure to get from this world to the other realm. Some experiencers described it as if they were being hurled down a tunnel at tremendous speed toward a blinding light and they are terrified by it and fight against it. But when they give up, they experience bliss.
In his book, Resisting Happiness, Matthew Kelly writes, “When we resist happiness we are really resisting God… To oppose God is a fool’s errand. Only the insane and egomaniacal would resist God, and yet, I suspect we all fall into both of those categories from time to time.” I suspect those who are terrified by the light and fight against it fear their loss of control. That is the terrifying part of the experience but as soon as they give up trying to be in control, it becomes a blissful experience. Once they stop resisting God, they find happiness.
Changed for the Better
Jesus said, “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (Jn 3:21) Dr. Greyson, who is a psychiatrist, found the most consistent and impressive finding in his research was how people change their way of living after having the experience. Because he followed near-death experiencers for decades following the experience, he observed profound changes in people’s attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors and the aftereffects do not go away. They become more spiritual, less material, less impressed with honor or prestige, and more concerned about their relationships with others. Addicts no longer crave drugs, bullies cannot tolerate violence, and all experiencers become more caring, more compassionate, and altruistic.
Although Dr. Greyson doesn’t use these terms to describe the change, we can. After coming to the light, near-death experiencers live in God. They reaffirm the Golden Rule because to them, hurting others to get ahead makes no sense, but being kind and compassionate does. The changes they make in their lives may be clearly seen as done in God.
Most importantly, experiencers universally say death is not to be feared. Fear of dying leads to fear of living life to the fullest which is not what God wants for us. Jesus told us, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10:10) Experiencers describe a life after death that is better than what we have here, but they can’t explain it because it isn’t something that is here. They find it is impossible to use words relevant in this world to try to describe something that has no comparison in this world. Perhaps that is why Jesus spoke using similes or parables saying, “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure (Mt 13:44), a mustard seed (Mt 13:31), a pearl (Mt 13:45), or leaven. (Mt 13:33)”
Proven by Reason and Faith
Are you skeptical about the stories about near-death experiences? Dr. Greyson was. Prior to beginning his research, Dr. Greyson was a diehard materialist, believing nothing exists outside the material world. But as a doctor, he encountered a patient who had a near-death experience, and he couldn’t explain how she was able to tell him accurate details about things that went on outside her hospital room while she was in a coma. Then, several years later, he met Dr. Raymond Moody who wrote a book about the phenomena he termed “near-death experiences,” and discovered that the incident with his patient was not just a one-off occurrence but part of a much larger phenomenon that is quite common. There are even reports from ancient Greece and Rome that are similar to the experiences we hear about today.
Not only does the scientific data support that these experiences are real, but scripture also provides us with the same truth that people describe from their near-death experiences. But we don’t have to approach death to have an encounter with God. We are all invited to repent from our sins, to seek the light, and to undergo the lasting transformation that comes from being born again, from becoming a new creation in the Spirit.
Becoming a New Creation
Although you aren’t guaranteed a near-death experience to prompt you to change the way you live, you can make the choice on your own. Perhaps the best place to start is with a life review by assessing those situations where you’ve been hurt or where you’ve hurt others. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal them from the other person’s perspective and then to help you forgive or repent and restore the broken relationships. This process can be repeated daily, at work, at home, in your ministries, whenever you have caused or experienced pain that is in need of healing.
Another daily reflection should be those situations where you are choosing to work in darkness so that your deeds will not be exposed. If you wouldn’t want to stand up in front of everyone at church on Sunday and tell them what you did, you might need to make amends. Think about what you would need to change so that you’re not ashamed of being exposed in the light. God already knows the truth, ask him to help you live in the truth.
Beware of drifting backward. Make the changes permanent by finding an accountability partner who will speak the truth to you in love. We live in a fallen world. Our first reading told us that “all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity.” (2 Chron 36:14) When everyone does it, we become numb to bad behavior and we too can add “infidelity to infidelity.” By engaging with an accountability partner, you can take precautions to guard against following the crowd.
Finally, participate in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist as often as possible. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him,” (Jn 3:17) He gave us these sacraments so we can live in the truth and come to the light. (Jn 3:21) It is through the grace of the sacraments that our works may be clearly seen as done in God. (Jn 3:21)
One final and comforting thought. In our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of a God who is rich in mercy, who has such a great love for us, who saves us by grace, shows the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus, and bestows grace upon us which is a gift. Paul cannot find appropriate words to describe the lavishness of God’s love. Neither could those who had near-death experiences. There are no words to describe God’s extravagant love except to say “he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we cannot fully comprehend the greatness of your love for us. Because of our human limitations, we fail to always live in your truth, to trust in you, and we fall back into the darkness of sin. But your mercy is greater than our wickedness and your goodness overcomes our evil. Show us the way to your light so that our works may be clearly seen as done in you and we may glorify you by our lives.
May God bless you abundantly this week as seek the light so that you may glorify the Lord by your life.
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