Today’s reading speaks of God’s unending love for us. Throughout history, God has shown His love by giving us innumerable chances to turn away from sin and turn to Him. In the first reading, we hear of the Jewish people’s exile to Babylon and their subsequent return. The author, who was himself a Jew, describes how God allowed the Jewish people to be captured and taken into exile because they had turned from Him. However, the exile was not permanent; God, in His love, granted the Jewish people a return to their homeland. The author makes it clear to his readers, and to us today, that it was God who brought the exile to an end because of His love; it was a gift freely given to a people who didn’t deserve it…people just like us. St. Paul echoes this theme in his letter to the Ephesians, making it clear that God has saved us through His grace; it is a gift freely given, not earned by anything anyone has ever done. No one earns salvation; it is only through God’s love that we are saved. In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that He is the ultimate gift from God. He will be “lifted up”, treated unjustly and ultimately murdered by one of the cruelest methods men have ever devised, for our sake. Let John’s words sink in… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Don’t think of it in the abstract but make it the personal gift that it is; Jesus is God’s individual gift to you, that you may have eternal life. And, yet, we continue to turn away, just as the Jewish people did throughout the Old Testament. This is why the Church gives us Lent, a time to consciously repent of our sins and turn again to our God, who loves us so much that He gave us Jesus so that we have eternal life. We have two weeks left before Holy Week; may we use that time to turn to God with our whole heart.