Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle C)[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible (Cycles A & C)
Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

Readings and Commentary:[3]

Options are offered for today’s Mass Celebration. The “Cycle A” readings may be used. Also, the first reading from the Cycle A readings may be used in place of Reading 1 below. A Cycle A post is provided for those choosing this option.

Reading I: Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.
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Commentary on Is 43:16-21

The Prophet first demonstrates some irony as he tells the people he speaks in the name of God who lead the people out of Egypt and destroyed the Pharaoh’s army that pursued them. He then tells them not to think of the past.

He speaks then of their return from exile in Babylon (the event happening as he writes) and how he again saved the people through his creative works. The intent of this discourse is to tell the people to thank God for what they themselves are receiving.

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
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Commentary on Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

Almost a continuation of the end of the reading from Isaiah, Psalm 126 is a community lament recalling the return from exile in Babylon. We find in this section the praise to God for accomplishing this deed. It is tempered at the end with a strophe that would indicate the continuing help of God is needed.

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Reading II: Philippians 3:8-14

Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good 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 and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith 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 from the dead.
It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
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.
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Commentary on Phil 3:8-14

Paul begins this selection with his own profession – all he has given up for the Lord counts for nothing as he holds Christ’s Lordship as the only thing of worth. He goes on to say that it is only through his faith in Christ that he receives salvation, that his former devotion to the Law of Moses did not accomplish salvation (as the Jews believe).

In the second section Paul again uses himself as example, telling the Philippians that (even) he has not achieved the end goal of “perfect maturity” (a final state of grace); rather he still pursues that goal. This discourse likely addresses some members of the community who fell they have achieved that high state of grace and have lost their humility. By his example Paul, who in his status as founder would be considered to have been further along this course, demonstrates the attitude that should be present.

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Gospel: John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
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Commentary on Jn 8:1-11

John’s Gospel places Jesus once more in the temple precincts. The Pharisees are attempting to trap him in a contradiction of Mosaic Law. They have no doubt heard the Lord’s teaching about loving one another and believe that he will not condemn the adulterous woman and thereby give them reason to call him “blasphemer”.

In response, rather than debating the law, he simply begins writing in the dust. Tradition tells us that what he wrote with his finger was a list of the sins of those gathered to stone the woman caught in adultery. He then asked that the one without sin should cast the first stone. (The first stones were to be thrown by the witnesses).

The story continues that after his second set of writings in the dust, the group gathered to stone the woman; “…they went away one by one, beginning with the elders”. Even, or more importantly first, the elders left. No one was without sin. In the closing statement Jesus does something unexpected. He does not judge the woman either, rather he tells her to go and sin no more emphasizing that Jesus came into the world not to judge it but through his presence save it.

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Reflection:

The Gospel of the Jesus and the adulterous woman brings into focus what scripture tells us as we reach the fifth week of our Lenten discipline. In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we hear him telling the people that they do not need to look back to the time when they were saved by God in the exodus from Egypt. They can see God’s mercy and salvation around them even as they return from the Babylonian exile. Their response to the prophet might have been sung as we heard in the one hundred and twenty sixth psalm. (Our mini lesson here is to look around at what God has done for us, in his mercy, today.)

Taken chronologically, the next story we hear is Jesus and the adulterous woman. We find him challenged by the temple elders once more, this time bringing a woman to him, in humiliation, accused of adultery. Their motives were disingenuous as the Lord clearly saw. They assumed that, when so confronted, he would have only two choices. He could either support the letter of the law and pronounce a death sentence (taking them at their word that the woman had in fact been caught in adultery) or he could deny the law and stand as a blasphemer in the temple precincts. In either case he would be trapped either reversing his own teaching or contradicting the law.

Jesus took a third option, one not anticipated by the elders. He began writing in the dust in front of them. Tradition holds that what he was writing were the sins of those who accused the woman probably, in the first instance of those who had brought the charges (these would have been the ones required to cast the first stone) and then calling them, in the face of their own sins, to cast the first stone. The implication would have been that charges could be brought against them, potentially having them share the fate of the woman they condemned.

The Gospel tells us that, as soon as he called upon the witnesses to cast the first stone, he began writing in the dust again. This time it was apparently the sins of the rest of those present. We are told the crowd all left, beginning with the elders. The image was clear, no one is without sin. All of the accusers left leaving Jesus with the woman, the sinner and the sinless.

Fulfilling his mission in microcosm, he did not judge her (us). He simply asked her where her accusers were and then told her he would not he would not accuse her either. He then told her to go and sin no more.

If that story were not enough, we are also given St. Paul’s profession in his letter to the Philippians. He confesses that even though he had given up everything for Christ, he did not consider himself fully reconciled with God in Christ. He tells us that it was for him (and is for us) an endless work for which we must be constantly strive.

The message as we said in the beginning is brought into focus by the Gospel – we must be constantly striving for the grace of God, recognizing that through his mercy we are invited back to him. We are always in need of forgiveness and that gift is freely given in Christ. Our prayer and great hope today is that we might come before Jesus in the sacraments and be made worthy of the gift he offers; peace in our day and salvation in the world to come.

Pax

[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture is “The Woman Taken in Adultery” by William Blake, 1805
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.