Cycle C - Year I:  

7 April 2019: Fifth Sunday of Lent

(Liturgical Color: Violet)

Readings:

First Reading:        Isaiah 43:16-21

Second Reading:   Philippians 3:8-14

Gospel:  Please Read  John 8:1-11

We all need God's mercy and forgiveness!

It is easy to find faults with anyone but ourselves, even when we also know that we are all sinful and imperfect beings. 

The human tendency to judge and condemn others goes back even to the time of Jesus as we will read in this Sunday's Gospel.

Now the Scribes and Pharisees were upset that our Lord Jesus Christ freely associates with public sinners. And so they wanted to entrap Jesus by confronting Him on the issue of adultery and retribution. For under the Jewish Law adultery is a serious crime punishable by death. Because it violates God's ordinance and wreaks havoc on the stability of marriage and family life.

And so the religious leaders brought a woman caught in adultery before Jesus. In their evil intent, they wanted to put Jesus in a dilemma. And this is how it should work: if our Lord would pardon the woman they could accuse Him of encouraging people to break the Law of Moses; and if Jesus would agree that she be punished for her crime, then Jesus would lose His reputation for being merciful.

But then, our Lord Jesus outsmarts them all and thus escapes the trap laid down by the religious leaders. Because Jesus turned the challenge towards His accusers instead, as He tells them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."  Now, in effect, Jesus is telling the woman's accusers not to condemn easily because everyone else is in need of God's forgiveness.

 At the end of the Gospel story, the woman was left alone with Jesus. For no one had the guts to throw the first stone at her. But also in no way does Jesus condone adultery.  Instead, Jesus tells the adulterous woman firmly, "Go, and from now on, do not sin any more."

We can see a contrast in attitude toward others by the major players in the story. The religious leaders wanted to condemn, but our Lord Jesus wished to forgive and restore the sinner to "health". Thus, Jesus is showing His followers the path to follow, which is the way of mercy and forgiveness to our lost brethren.  So the message of the Gospel story is clear: Jesus condemns sins but pardons the sinners with a call to repentance. Because we all need God's mercy and forgiveness.    

So then in this Sunday's Gospel incident, our Lord Jesus Christ does not allow anyone to use the Law of God to condemn the brother or sister when the person who condemns is himself, or herself, a sinner too. This episode, better than any other teaching, reveals that Jesus is indeed the Light which makes truth shine.

As Christians in our generation, the much harder path to follow is the one letting go of the tendency to judge others. It is almost a challenge to show someone who has wronged us the same mercy and forgiveness that our Lord Jesus has first shown us in respect of our own sinfulness and shortcomings in life.

At the Eucharist at Mass, let us pray for grace that collectively as a Church we become the visible face of God on earth "of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy."  Because mercy when we receive it helps us to show mercy ourselves.

And as we near the end of our Lenten pilgrimage, Mother Church encourages us to experience the joy of repentance and a clear conscience through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Forgiveness, even as we need to be forgiving as well.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!