THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, YR C
Is 43:16-21; Ps 126;
Phil 3:8-16; Jn 8:1-11
HOPE FOR RESTORATION AND NEWNESS
The readings for this Sunday stresses once more the mercy of God. In the readings for this Sunday us give all of hope. The hope of God restoring our dignity so that we can continue live fully in our lives in faith. In these readings we can discover the ways to the restoration of our hope and dignity.
The first step towards our restoration is found in the prophecy of Isaiah “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not”. What this means is that we must not let what has happened in the past impede the grace of God in our lives now. You may have lived you live in the past on your own terms and for your own interests. You may have your own excuses for living the way you did. That does not matter now. God want to help you from now on. And for him, it doesn’t matter what you were or have done in the past. What is important is your response today. Your past sin, no matter how great, can be swallowed up in the mercy of God. Give him a chance in your life because he wants to make things new for you.
The second step is to be able to envision what the future. Throught he prophet Isaiah, God said “see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”. We must begin to have a vision of what God can do in our lives. What he can make of us when we give ourselves totally to him. Sometimes you may wonder how life will be on this new path with God. But we can take look at the examples of others whose lives have been changed by their surrender to God. we have many examples. We can look at the life of Paul. His life gives us hope that we too can be better and can be used in a tremendous way by God. St. Augustine is another example. We must not look back but look forward to a new life. This season of Lent is a season to look forward to a certain newness and change in our lives. May God make something new and unthinkable in our lives.
Thirdly, do not grief over what you have lost. In the second reading, Paul said for the sake of Christ he has left everything and count it as loss. It is important to let go of the past with whatever sweetness we thing is in there. For all, even his great achievements pales in comparison in what he has gained in Christ Jesus. In this season, God wants to decouple us from our sins but we must be ready to let it all go. We must focus on what we will gain. When we focus on what we lost we will miss the beauty of what God can do in our lives.
Fourthly, whatever state of your journey you are, you must not give up, keep pressing on. It may be difficult to get things clear immediately. We must continue to do good. Doing good and trusting God has never been easy. Sometimes it is not clear what really is happening in our lives, or our prayers seem stale. Well, St. Ignatius calls it moments of desolation. His advice is that, in those moments keep on praying and doing good for God will make your efforts fruitful in his own time.
The fifth point, is in the gospel. At the end of their interaction Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” In meeting Jesus, her life of sin and shame must come to an end. She must be restored. In like manner, your life of sin must come to an end to give way to the life of holiness. We are not forgiven in order to sin more. There must be change in our lives. If you want to be a new person, you can’t continue to do old things. Jesus forgives us but we must accept to become better. And we must do better. Certainly, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. When we meet Jesus, the holiest of all men, he does not condemn us. He does not pass judgement but shows mercy. closer to the celebration of our redemption, Easter, we all have an opportunity to be better and bask in the transforming mercy of the Lord. Remember to go for confession.
God bless you.
By Fr Delight Carbonu
