First Reading – Isaiah 43:16-21 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 125(126) ©
Second Reading – Philippians 3:8-14 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Joel 2:12-13
The Gospel According to John 8:1-11 ©
(NJB)
Listen!
God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings or the machinations of emperors and kings…be careful how you read the words of the prophet.
The people were wrong to give God credit for their flight from Egypt. God had nothing to do with that endeavor.
Be mindful.
God loved the Egyptians too, they are also God’s children, and God mourned the suffering of those who fell, just as God mourns the victims of all human conflict.
There is no need to recall the past, it is a tapestry of metaphor and myth an does not refer to historical realities, except perhaps in the broadest outlines. We should not celebrate this narrative or glorify the war crimes that one nation committed against another.
To heal we must move beyond this narrative, if we do not we will be lost forever in the desert of our hearts.
Let it go.
God is waiting for us to put aside our wild ways, to walk humbly, to love mercy and to seek justice, as God does for all people.
Know this.
It was not God who freed the Jews from captivity in Babylon. It was the king of Persia and it was good of him to do so; he honored the fellowship that all human beings share, simply for being human.
Be mindful.
Insofar as all good deeds have their origin in the goodness we derive from God, then yes, God deserves the credit. Nevertheless, it was the free choice of the Persian King to release those who had been enslaved, allowing them to return to their homes…though not all of them did. Many remained in the diaspora as citizens of Persia, some became Greek under the rule of Alexander, and later Roman under the auspices of their power.
Those who returned to Judea regarded their cousins who had never left the land, as impure, as gentiles, and worse as outcasts…this was a crime against them.
Consider the teaching of the Apostle and do not try to measure yourself against him. Do not measure yourself against his good or his bad deeds.
Know this.
Your destiny is the same as his, it is the same as the Samaritans, the same as the King of Persia, the same as the returning Judeans, the same as the Jews of the diaspora, the same as the Canaanites, the Amorites and the Hittites, the same as the Egyptians and the same as all of the Israelites…God has prepared a place for you in eternity, and has laid plans to ensure that you will find it.
The apostle expresses the greatest wisdom when he articulates the view that the things of this world, all of our deeds, both the tragic and the triumphant, that everything is rubbish.
This is not to say that we should throw it all away, discard everything and appreciate nothing. It is to understand that all of our works are temporary, transient and in time will be forgotten.
In time the entire planet will go up in smoke, swallowed by our mother-star and when that happens there will be nothing left of any of us.
That day will come…eventually.
What matters on the cosmic scale is how we treat each other in the hear and now; it matters that we walk humbly, love mercy and seek justice as much as we are able, for this is the way that Jesus taught us to follow.
Remember this:
The anointed one is not a king, Jesus was not a lord; the Romans crowned him with thorns and mocked him when they called him king of the Jews, this title was not meant to be taken seriously. Jesus was the son of a carpenter, and the friend of fishermen. He was a man of the land, one of the am haaretz.
Go to him, follow him, enter the way of compassion; contemplate the sacrifice of mercy, it is what Jesus offered to God on the cross, and mercy is the only sacrifice desired by God…the creator of the universe.
Consider the Gospel reading for today, it presents a narrative of Jesus at the Temple, in the cultic center of his people, and in that place his understanding of his people and their traditions is challenged by a group of Pharisees, his rabbinical peers, as well as a group of scribes who are also students of the sacred texts.
They present Jesus with a problem, a legal matter; the question concerns the proper way to deal with a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery.
In the case that was offered, testimony was not given. Witnesses did not come forward and a defense was not offered on her behalf.
A group had gathered; they were intent on killing her, on squeezing the breath out of her by placing large stones on her chest until she could not breath anymore (as stonings were done in the tradition of the Hebrew people).
The crowd felt that they had a sacred obligation to kill her; they believed that they had a duty, according to the laws of Moses, and that the adulteress must be put to death to satisfy the law.
The “law of Moses” however, had become a fetish, like an idol, and the crowd wanted to satisfy it in the same way that we desire to satisfy all off our fetishes, and in seeking her death they sought to present a human sacrifice in the temple precinct.
The pharisees and scribes wanted to test Jesus, and the crowd who gathered wanted the spectacle of a killing, and Jesus responds by offering the only thing that God desires, the only thing that anyone there could freely give, he offers her mercy, and through her the offer of mercy is given directly to God…a sacrifice of mercy was substituted for her life.
Do not read the story as if Jesus won a victory over the assembled crowd; read it as if he passed the test and thwarted the efforts of his opponents to trip him up.
The crowd understood his compassion and they loved him for it, he showed them the way and they wanted it, he carried the crowd with him into the place beloved by God, into the blessed land, the place of mercy and compassion, of humility and justice…a return to the garden which we had forsaken.
Jesus was the first to make the offering of mercy, and one by one as the crowd dispersed, they each left an offering of the same…they offered mercy, and the woman retained her life.
First Reading – Isaiah 43:16-21 ©
See, I am Doing a New Deed, and I
Will Give My Chosen People Drink
Thus
says the Lord, who made a way through the sea, a path in the great waters; who put
chariots and horse in the field and a powerful army which lay there never to
rise again, snuffed out, put out like a wick:
No
need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before.
See,
I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it?
Yes,
I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wilds.
The
wild beasts will honour me, jackals and ostriches, because I am putting water
in the wilderness (rivers in the wild) to give my chosen people drink.
The
people I have formed for myself will sing my praises.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 125(126) ©
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
When
the Lord delivered Zion from bondage,
it seemed like a dream.
Then
was our mouth filled with laughter,
on our lips there were songs.
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
The
heathens themselves said: ‘What marvels
the Lord worked for them!’
What
marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
Deliver
us, O Lord, from our bondage
as streams in dry land.
Those
who are sowing in tears
will sing when they reap.
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
They
go out, they go out, full of tears,
carrying seed for the sowing:
they
come back, they come back, full of song,
carrying their sheaves.
What marvels the Lord worked for us!
Indeed we were glad.
Second Reading - Philippians 3:8-14 ©
I Look on Everything as so Much
Rubbish if Only I Can Have Christ
I
believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I
look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a
place in him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the
perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection that comes
through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to
know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by
reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my
place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I
have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which
Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking
that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain
ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to
which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Acclamation – Joel 2:12-13
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Now,
now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, for I am
all tenderness and compassion.
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The Gospel According to John 8:1-11 ©
'Let the One Among You
Who Has Not Sinned Be the First to Throw a Stone'
Jesus
went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and
as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman
along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in
full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in
the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to
condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked
him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent
down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with
their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not
sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and
wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one,
beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who
remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no
one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said
Jesus ‘go away, and do not sin any more.’
A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Lent
(Year C)
