Today, on the fifth Sunday of Lent, the shadow of the Passion is already looming. The Cross is coming into view. Today’s readings are a reminder of the fruits of the Cross, Divine Mercy. This is the new law by which Christ judges an adulterous world, the law of love. The Precious Blood which flows from the Cross will flow into our wilderness and transform it.
NEW EXODUS
In today’s Old Testament reading, we hear the prophet Isaiah proclaiming one of his favourite themes: a new Exodus. In the first Exodus, God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, leading them through the desert into the promised land. In the second Exodus, the Lord will transform the desert itself. He will flood it with water, transforming it into an oasis of refreshment.
MERCY TOWARDS A SINNER
The gospel itself is a very well-known story. Its popularity is for two reasons. First, because it concerns a sexual sin, which for many people is the most difficult kind of sin. Secondly, because it shows the greatness of Divine Mercy.
What can we learn today for our own spiritual growth?
-We need to see this gospel in the light of the Old Testament reading, Christ changes the wilderness of sin; He reveals that it is no longer through obedience to the Law of Moses that His people will find salvation.
-It seems that there is a strong warning about hypocrisy within this story (the false motives of the officials).
-there is inequality to confront (the partner of the woman is absent entirely and has gone unpunished or unexposed),
-and there is a misuse of office and power at work here (those with power are exercising it against one with little or no power).
-The scene also calls out to us to be aware and to base our behaviour on the standards that Jesus championed and not those of the crowd, the voyeur or the manipulative.
NO CONDEMNATION
As Holy Week comes into view, the Redeemer is calling us ever more insistently to follow Him to Calvary, to bring our sins to Him there, to hear Him say again those blessed words of absolution: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more,”
NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT
Thus is Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled. The first, transient covenant of the desert, the stern Law of wrath and retribution, has now been transformed by the Precious Blood into the new and everlasting covenant of mercy and redemption. Thanks to the power of the Holy Cross, we too, like the woman in the gospel, can come to know both God’s justice and his mercy.
LET US FOLLOW CHRIST’S FOOTSTEPS
We are therefore called to follow a compassionate leader, one who saw behaviour that needed to be challenged from time to time, but who did not condemn the person. Let us do otherwise. Let us fly to the feet of Our Saviour, and implore His mercy. At the foot of His Cross, we shall draw water with joy, from the wells of salvation.
Happy Sunday and God bless.
FR Joseph
