Homily: 5th Sunday in Lent – Cycle C
Friends,
during the first three weeks of Lent, we have been reminded of our need to
examine ourselves, to acknowledge the sin we have committed and the good we
have failed to do, and to repent. Last
week, as we celebrated Laetare Sunday, we turned to focus on our merciful
God. As we recounted the parable of the
prodigal son, we heard of the merciful God who never stops loving us, even if
we turn our backs on Him. This week we
take a step further in our journey towards Easter and we are called to recognize
in Jesus our merciful Judge. To see this
fully, however, we have to understand something of the evil one who is working
against us.
Satan
is identified by many things throughout the Scriptures—the father of lies, for
example. Today we are invited to
recognize him as “the accuser”: the one who constantly accuses us of wrongdoing
before God so as to have us condemned. He
is the accuser because, having definitively turned his back on God, he has no
chance for reconciliation. Therefore, he
is wrathfully jealous of us who, though we have sinned against God, nonetheless
can still be reconciled to Him. In his
anger and jealousy, he strives both to turn us definitively from God and, when
he can’t accomplish that, to accuse us constantly before God so as to provoke
God’s wrath against us.
Here’s
the thing, though: Satan knows how God works.
He knows that God is a merciful Judge who will receive lovingly any of His
children who turn back to Him and seek His mercy. Thus, Satan knows that his accusations won’t
be able to provoke God’s wrath. Yet, he
does it anyway. Why? Because he knows us, as well. He knows how prone that we are to defeat
ourselves with guilt and shame and so he accuses us so as to tempt us to hide
ourselves from God for fear that He would see our shamefulness and condemn us
for having offended Him. Because of
pride, we often give in to this temptation and hide ourselves from God. Our Scriptures today remind us, however, that
this temptation is filled with lies.
In
the first reading, Isaiah the prophet declares this on behalf of God: “Remember
not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am
doing something new!” The Israelites had
sinned against God and so were exiled from their native land. After this time of penance and purification,
God did not want them dwelling on their past failures, accusing themselves over
and over again. Rather, as He prepared
them to return to their homeland, He urged them to leave off the past and to
embrace the new life that He was giving them.
In other words, He did not return to accuse them of their past sins; but
rather, after they had shown themselves repentant, He sought to restore them
fully to life in the land that He promised to their forefathers.
In
the Gospel reading, we see this dynamic even more clearly. In it, the scribes and the Pharisees are
acting as “satans”, bringing forward a woman caught committing adultery and
accusing her before Jesus. They are
ready to kill her by stoning, but first wish to use this opportunity to test
Jesus and His teaching. Jesus stands in
the midst of this as the merciful Judge.
He makes no accusations. Rather,
He invites the scribes and the Pharisees to look beyond the moment and to consider
how they, too, might be judged one day.
Then, when the accusers turn away, Jesus turns to the woman and says, “Woman,
where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
After the woman acknowledges that none of her accusers remain, Jesus, the
truly sinless one who had every right to accuse and condemn her, says, “Neither
do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more”.
It
is true that this woman (and the man with whom she committed adultery) deserved
punishment for her sin. All the more
powerful, therefore, that Jesus did not condemn her, but rather forgave
her. In that moment, Jesus saw a woman
full of shame for her sin and intent on repentance. He did not return to her past to accuse her,
but rather stayed with her in the present and encouraged her to go forward into
the future without sin. In doing so,
Jesus reveals to us a great truth: God is only concerned with our past in as
much as we have acknowledged our sin and have repented. Once we have done that, He is only concerned
with where we are now, in the present, and to where we are going: “Neither do I
condemn you,” Jesus said to the woman, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more”.
Friends,
this teaching encapsulates the work that we are called to do during Lent: to
acknowledge our sins and turn away from them, leaving them in the past so that,
making ourselves a pure offering to God in union with His Son at Easter, we may
continue to walk forward towards the eternal life to which he has called us. In our pride, we are often tempted to
continue to condemn ourselves—and Satan, the accuser, is always happy to help
us do that—but we must resist that temptation.
God does not wish to accuse us, but rather to forgive us, so as to save
us from the harsh judgment that would come should we cling foolishly to our
sins. This season of Lent is our
reminder and encouragement to present ourselves humbly before God.
Saint
Paul is an example for us. In the second
reading, Saint Paul speaks of how he turned away from his past sinfulness and is
now intent on pursuing the eternal life promised to him through Jesus and His
resurrection. Having received
forgiveness for his past sins, Saint Paul no longer dwells on them. Listen again to what he said: “Brothers and
sisters, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just
one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies
ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling,
in Christ Jesus”. Friends, this is the
work of Lent: to forget what lies behind and look forward to the life of the
resurrection to which God has called us through Jesus Christ.
Therefore,
in these last two weeks of Lent, let us take courage to come before Jesus in
humility, acknowledging our sins, trusting that we will find in Him not an
accuser, but rather a merciful Judge. This
will make us ready to leave our sins in the past and to press forward to the
life of the resurrection; ready also to make of ourselves a pleasing offering
to God, in union with the eternal offering of Jesus, His Son. It is this very same offering that we
encounter here at this altar.
May
our offering of thanks today, and the grace poured out to us from this altar,
strengthen us to complete this good work.
Given in Spanish at St. Joseph Parish: Delphi, IN – April 3rd,
2022
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