28.03.2004 - The Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year C
First Reading: Isaiah 43,16-21 Psalm 126
Second Reading: Philippians 3,8-14 Gospel Reading: John 8,1-11
It is easy in retrospect to see mistakes and to accuse others; in looking ahead
we become afraid, for we have no safe hold for support. Today's three letters
help us to look back and ahead in different ways.
Isaiah saw the power of God at work in favour of the people, who must no longer
fear the things of the past that have now been subjugated by God's love! What
was frightening in the past must no longer influence those who have unexpectedly
benefited from God's intervention: "remember not the former things".
Let us look ahead, and in front of us there is that same God with the same love
as before: He is preparing more that is new. We are waiting for Him to show
us His love which holds many surprises in store for us. Will we get used to
looking back only to see our sins and the great love of God who saves us? Will
we be able to look ahead with the confidence of knowing that we have a Father
who will always love us?
St Paul confides in the letter to the Philippians that he wishes to be oblivious
of the past, a past in which human abilities were of great importance, as were
deeds and merits acquired by obeying outer laws, such as circumcision, ablutions
and other rites: things which never gave complete guarantee of salvation. He
wishes to look to the future, a future full of the presence of Jesus! Jesus
Christ is never a thing of the past, he stands before us. We can never say that
we have already followed him, already obeyed him, already loved him. Jesus is
always there in front of us to be followed, obeyed and loved! St Paul says that
"whatever gain he had he counted as loss" ( i.e. what was gained with
outer works) considering them "as refuse", for life consists in knowing
Jesus and in being in him. It is by means of his death and resurrection that
we can be saved! "Being in Jesus" comes to pass when we participate
in his suffering and in his death in the hope "that if possible I may attain
the resurrection of the dead!"
We have to learn how to look at the past and at the future. Jesus teaches us.
When some respectable people bring before Jesus a woman caught in the act of
adultery, Jesus looks at her past and at her future. In the past there is indeed
the sin deserving of death, but in the past there are also God's promises. In
the future he sees the saint in us, since despite our sin, we meet him, the
Son of God and we receive his Word. Jesus came to remove our sin! Sin must not,
therefore, cause us anguish for Jesus is on our path and in our lives. Jesus
can redeem the past, so that in the future we can glimpse a new reality, a new
life together with him.
Furthermore, according to Jesus, before seeing the sins of others, we must see
our own. In this way the sins of others, no matter how bad, will not turn us
into inflexible judges. According to Jesus we will learn to use with sinners
that patience and hope that God has many times used with us.
Writing on the ground Jesus showed that he was not concerned with judging the
sinner: she already had her conscience as judge, and above all men's judgement
is of little importance compared to God's. And God's judgement is the judgement
of a Father! The Father wishes to heal hearts wounded by sin, He wishes His
light to shine on the faces of his children to renew and encourage!
There in the courtyard of the temple, no sinner condemned the woman, because
they realised they would have been condemning themselves! Jesus is the Son of
God, the only human being without sin and because of this he has compassion
and offers the mercy of the Father, and calls all to live in a new way without
sin and without faithlessness. Jesus looks at the woman only when he remains
alone with her and the others have all left; no-one must disturb his dialogue
with her. With the strength of this delicate love, the respectful look and a
voice full of love the woman can truly begin to live as she had never lived
before. It is not the love of a husband to make her feel fulfilled , but the
love she received from Jesus!
Once the sinner (and that sinner is myself) meets Jesus, he/she can look to
the future with joy: "behold, I am doing something new: now I am blossoming,
can you not see?" I look only for Jesus, I look for his judgement that
will save me, I try to be alone with him. I can do it, because at my baptism
he gave me a heart capable of this intimacy.
Jesus, you are my life, my treasure, the prize for my race towards happiness!
With you I can hope, for myself and for others, I can live in kindness with
others, even if they are sinners! You have illumined me to the mercy of the
Father that embraces all men and women!