21/03/2010 - 05 SUNDAY IN LENTEN SEASON - C
1 Reading Is 43,16-21 Psalm 125 2 Reading Phil 3,8-14 Gospel Jn 8,1-11
"I'm not anymore in the world; but they are in the world, and I come to you.
Father, protect those whom you have given me so that they can be one as we are one".
Jesus speaks as if he is already outside of this world. But, when the evangelist
wrote this prayer, he put on the lips of Jesus the words that he says, as raised,
to the Father: "I'm not in the world anymore". Simply, we can say that
Jesus in the upper room is by now sure of his imminent death, so he speaks as if
he is already out of this world. He knows that the world rejects him. Death that
is going to remove him out of the world in not a negative event for him, not an
escape. He had said several times to his disciples that that's why he came to the
world, to offer his life, therefore to leave the world with an act of love. He had
decided to obey to the plan of God and the world does not attract him any more:
he can truly say: "I'm not anymore in the world". On the other hand, the
disciples are still in the world, and therefore in danger. It's for them that he
is praying, exactly because they are in a difficult situation. Will they succeed
to remain faithful? Will they go over the scandal of his death on the cross? Will
they be able to live to give out his Word? Will they be able to witness that he
is the Son of God? Jesus says: "and I come to you", as if to affirm that
he himself is a prayer for them. His life offered back to the Father, will be accepted
as an act of his intercession for the disciples, an assurance that they will continue
to be carriers of his Spirit in the world. He does not pray to the Father only for
the disciples, but presents to him his own life; then he asks: "protect those
whom you have given me in your name". What does this mean? "Protect...
in your name": we can understand these words that the desire of Jesus is that
his disciples are always welcomed as children of God, sharing always in the beauty
and the greatness of his love and of his perfect, full, merciful, forgiving, and
tender life.
Soon we are to celebrate Easter, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lord.
Our preparation is to reach a full conversion. The conversion that today is being
placed before us is a radical one: "Do not remember the past, do not think
of the past things! See, I'm going to do something new", says the prophet.
The images that he uses to describe this newness are surprising. The way Jesus enters
in the way of thinking and doing of his interlocutors, very sure of themselves,
is truly surprising. He brings a change in the way one normally see and judge, and
he does it in a simple and uncontestable way. While teaching in the Temple, he is
questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees. We know that by now they are declared enemies:
they question him only with the intention to catch him in something in order to
accuse him. They bring in front of him a woman who was caught in adultery. Before
he had harsh words for such a sin and left there is no doubt in denouncing it as
a grave sin. But now, would he obey to the Law of Moses? They think of the punishment
for the sin but not how to save the sinner. Jesus knows that he is sent by the Father
to save humanity. All need him because all are sinners. Even the Scribes and the
Pharisees, who hold the right to judge and condemn others, even they are debtors
with God. Their lives for sure were not that pure to be put them in place of God,
judging others. When they expected Jesus to condemn the woman, they were not ready
to consider that his mercy is that of God. On the contrary, they are sure that God
towards sinners cannot be merciful, but that he must apply the punishment that was
stipulated in the time when the people was being formed. Jesus bends down and writes
with his finger in the dust. It was certainly a symbolic act, or a fulfillment of
a prophecy? "All who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away
from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain
of living water". Thus writes the prophet Jeremiah (17,13). Jesus writes in
the dust: is he writing their names? Are they not also sinners? The fact that nobody
had ever condemn them to death doesn't mean that they were without sin and they
were not to be condemn by God. "The one without sin, let him throw the first
stone against her". This is Jesus' judgment, a judgment understood by all.
All turn away, only Jesus remains with the woman to whom he says: "Neither
I condemn you, go and sin no more". Certainly, sin is to be condemn, it's wrong,
not to be repeated. The sinner is loved and saved, and because of this he is not
to repeat whatever is wrong. St. Paul knew that he is a sinner and that he had not
reached perfection. But he also knew that he was not condemn by God, not because
he was able to follow all the laws, but because he took hold of Jesus who was sent
by the Father for our justification. We are greatful to God because we are united
with his only Son! Let us move forward with joy and determination in leaving all
to gain Christ, our life!