Psalm 137
John 3:14-21
The invitations to rejoice in the middle of Lent sing in a different key from the jubilant songs of Christmas or Easter. Our first reading, which seems to have inspired our Fourth Eucharistic Prayer, outlines the history of the people of God as a saga of infidelity, rejection of prophets, and of losing our way by seeking our own advantage. But we remember this history only because God continually refused to let it define our future. The real story underneath our first reading is that there has been nothing we could do to lose ourselves permanently or to spurn God definitively; God responds to every rejection with a counteroffer of love.