(Homily for the
5th Sunday of Lent Yr. C)
The first reading taking from the
prophecy of Isaiah (43:16-21) in a
simple but stricken manner gives us a message that condenses the three readings
of today, a message around which other messages revolve. The fascinating
message goes thus: “Remember not the
former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it. I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert”. Therein, “the former things” and “the things of
old” refer to the first exodus. However, this is now replaced by a “new thing”,
mainly the return. The “new thing” that
God promised to do through the words of prophet Isaiah, is the new Exodus, a
new liberation, of his people, the Israelites from slavery in Babylon. The
great thing he is going to do will be more powerful than that of Egypt. God can
and does new things for the people he loves, for his own people. What is
required of man is trust and confidence in God. The new thing and the turning
around of situations that God accomplished for his people, is an anticipation
and prophecy of “new life”, the turning around of every ugly existential
situation of his people through his Son Jesus Christ. He wants to liberate man from the slavery of sin to the freedom of
God’s children; he wants to make a fountain of grace to spring up from barren
souls and hearts. Indeed, we saw the realization of that in the experience
of St. Paul in the second reading and that of the adulterous woman in the
gospel.
In the second reading (Phil. 3:8-14): we see a transformed
Paul after his encounter and experience on his way to Damascus. After that experience Paul never remained
the same, he was transformed and renewed, from a die-hard persecutor to an
ardent and zealous apostle. He abandoned his past, his fervent observation
of the law, and he came to consider all to be “rubbish, refuse”. In his words: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and
count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own, based on the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ”. This is the hit
track of not only this reading but the whole of St. Paul’s experience.
After his encounter with Christ he regarded everything as rubbish, and then he
started seeking for a righteousness that is not based on law, but that through
faith in Jesus. He continued, that “I may
know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death”. The legacy of Paul in this letter is that
we can only be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by observance of the old
law, as some Jews believed. Truly, God can do great things as the psalmist
said, and one of the greatest things is the complete change of human heart, to
convert and renew him. This is what God desires to do for us through His Son,
but it is incumbent upon us to allow ourselves to conquered by Christ.
Similarly, once again in the gospel passage
of St. John (Jn. 8:1-11), he situates
us well into the context of the message of the subsequent readings, the episode
of the woman caught in fragrant adultery is a confirmation of God’s act of
changing man’s heart. In that episode, the reaction of Jesus attracted the
reaction and inaction of many people, his
was a confirmation of God’s future for every sinner. At the beginning, St.
John said they put the question to Jesus in order to trap him, but Jesus
dismembered them and their plans. The
whole situation changed from a test to accuse him to a testimony of Divine
Mercy! A laboratory of mercy indeed! Jesus condemns not the sinner, but sin
itself. He said that his earthly mission is to call sinners to repentance (Lk.5:32), and therefore not to
condemnation. Of course, St. Paul was an object of this experience, little
wonder he opined that “there is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of Spirit which
gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rm.8:1-2).
At that decisive moment when the Scribes,
the Pharisees and the woman were caught up before the mercy seat of Jesus, they
wanted to stone her, as prescribed by law. And Jesus intervened: “Let him who is without sin among you be the
first to throw a stone on her” (v.7).
Here is a glaring illustration of Jesus’ saying thus: “Judge not, that you may
not be judged” (Mt.7:1). Jesus brought to their and our consciousness,
that before condemning others, we need to look deep within and inside
ourselves, to see if we are better off. Their action was full of malice and hypocrisy, but that of Jesus was
filled with love and mercy. And interestingly, it was as if, Jesus
introduced them to an intense examination of conscience, and afterwards “they went away one by one, beginning with
the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him”. This scene of only Jesus and the woman is
the hallmark of the woman’s conversion. Jesus looked into her eyes, he must
have heard how fast her heart was beating. And
behold, here comes the divine transforming compassion. One could imagine,
after that silence Jesus looked up and asked her “where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord” (v.10). Finally, with and in the presence of Jesus, the woman that was not
allowed to utter a word, can now express herself. Jesus first restored her freedom and dignity as a human person. And
afterwards Jesus restored her dignity
that sin has rubbed off from her, her dignity as a child of God. Jesus said
to her “Neither do I condemn you; go and
do not sin again” (v.11). He invites her not to sin again because “Christ set us free, so that we should remain
free” (Gal.5:1). This is divine
mercy in action! One could imagine the relief that the woman felt in her heart
at that very moment, upon hearing the words of Jesus. We can equally imagine the symbolic nature of Jesus’ act of writing on
the ground, even though some say that Jesus was writing the sins of the scribes
and Pharisees, but what interest me most hear is that Jesus from writing on the
ground, he wrote on the heart of the woman. As the word of God says: “No, this is the covenant I will make with
the house of Israel, when those days have come, the Lord declares: In their
minds I shall plant my laws writing them on their hearts” (Heb. 8:10). The mercy of God cancels our past, and creates a future of many
possibilities and ways. He even makes a way in the wilderness (cf. 1st
reading). His is a continuous invitation to repentance, “As I live, declares
the Lord Yahweh, I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked but in the
conversion of the wicked who changes his ways and saves his life” (Ez. 33:11).
My dear brothers and sisters, as we
can see sin rubs from us both our
dignity as human persons and our dignity as God’s children, but it is only
God through His Son Jesus Christ, who can restore them to us. Ours indeed, is a God of second chance.
For in and with our God, every sinner has a future and every saint has a past. As we can see, in the gospel passage John
did not give us the name of the woman, and this choice of St. John is symbolic,
for the woman in question could be you or I. Therefore, whatever your past
life has been, even if your experience was a scandalous one like that of the
adulterous woman, let us make haste and go to Jesus, and certainly we shall
hear those words of His reechoing in the ears of our heart “Go and sin no more”. His words are liberating and transforming.
For “If Christ sets you free, you will be
free indeed” (Jn. 8:36). Jesus in today’s gospel accomplished
double conversion, hopefully on the side of the scribes and the Pharisees and
certainly on the side of the adulterous woman. May his words of liberation
continue to ring bell in our hearts, for he has not come to condemn us, but to
set us free, even when the scribes and Pharisees in our life want and desire to
stone us, Jesus will certainly intervene. May He continues to intervene in the
experiences of those that have been assassinated character wise, those their dignity
is in question because of intimidation and threat, and those who are
stigmatized because of their frailties. May God show us all His restoring and
transforming compassion! Happy Sunday to U all!
(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)
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