FORGETTING THE PAST - 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT (4/3/2022)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

April 3, 2022

Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8:1-11

FORGETTING THE PAST

"Regrets, I've had a few," the Sinatra song says. I suppose we all could say that as we look back at our past. But this Sunday as we near the end of Lent, the word of God is exhorting us not to look backward but forward. Our readings today urge us to break with the past, especially the sinful past, and look ahead to new life in Christ.

ISAIAH

This particular passage is from the second part of Isaiah, written during the Babylonian Captivity in the sixth century BC. It looks back some 700 years before to the wonders God worked during the Exodus from Egypt. This selection is prophesying that God will work new wonders in the return of the captives from Babylon.

The Lord says to the Israelites and to us: "Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!"

The Lord says that "In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers." God is, as a contemporary song says, "a way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness." God will always make a way for us as he did for his people of old.

GOSPEL

Our gospel is the account of the woman caught in adultery who was brought before Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees quote the law of Moses, which required that the woman be stoned.

Jesus begins to write on the ground with his finger, leading to centuries of speculation as to exactly what he was writing. Was he writing down the sins of the accusers, or something else entirely? We don't know.

Finally, Jesus answers with a brilliant "word of wisdom." He doesn't say whether the woman should be stoned or not. Rather, Jesus invites anyone there who is without sin to begin the stoning. Suffice it to say, that was enough to break up the party!

Once everyone else has left, Jesus asks the woman if anyone had condemned her. When she answered, "no one," Jesus responds, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more."

It is worth noting that Jesus does not condone the sin, but gives the woman a chance to change her life...to break with her sinful past and look toward the future.

PHILIPPIANS

St. Paul is an eloquent preacher as well as a witness to what it means to break with the past and accept new life in Christ. He says, "I consider everything as loss because of the supreme goal of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." The Greek word translated "rubbish" can also mean human waste. We get the point here that Paul is completely rejecting those things he used to value in his past life in light of the incomparable value of knowing Christ.

Speaking personally, I find that this passage is one of the strongest and most beautiful in proclaiming that absolutely nothing can be preferred to faith in Christ Jesus, having no righteousness of one's own.

St. Paul only wants "to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead."

Paul says that he hasn't attained the goal yet but keeps pressing on, "forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead." St. Paul's goal and attitude should be ours as we prepare to enter shortly into the holiest week of the year.

ONWARD AND UPWARD

Our readings today have all urged us onward and upward toward our high calling in the Lord Jesus. In Isaiah we are told to "Remember not the events of the past." St. Paul exhorts us to consider everything as loss except knowing Christ Jesus and the power of his resurrection. Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery that she is not condemned but to break with sin. 

As we approach the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, may we prepare to be crucified with Christ and know the power of his resurrection in our lives though the grace of the Holy Spirit.