1st Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21
This text of Second Isaiah, is an Oracle to the exiles in Babylon, the descendants of those who were taken before the destruction of Jerusalem. The exiles clung to the traditions of Yahweh's power in order to maintain their faith and their national identity. They had lost nation and temple.The exodus story introduces Yahweh and creates identification and proof of Yahweh’s ability to bring about what the Oracle will declare.
Three pronouncements:
· A Command: Do not cling to old things so much that you dismiss the new.
· A Notice: Perceive that it is I who does these new things
· A Statement of honour to Yahweh(v20)
Wild beasts— Walking non-domestic animals. Figuratively used to denote people of violent, brutal and wicked character.
Jackal : An animal that eats dead animals or animals killed by others. It devours the nest of the ostrich built in the ground. Used for people who prey on others.
Ostrich: A swift bird, with voracious and indiscriminate appetite that flees its nest in time of danger abandoning eggs and young. Used for people who have no affection for their own.
The repetition of 19b and 20b sets up 20a as a central point
THOUGHTS: Could ‘drink to my chosen’ refer to drink-offering: wine, part poured on the sacrifice and remainder given to priest (Ex 29:40, Lev 23:18, Num 15:5,7) appointed as a sign that earth’s blessings come from Yahweh? (Gen 35:14)
RESPONSORIAL PSALM 126: 1-6
With its antiphonal structure this psalm is a liturgy suited for corporate worship. It acknowledges the great role that Yahweh played in the deliverance from Egypt and tells of the praise and honour given Yaheweh for it. It talks about joy, surprise, sadness and thankfulness.
The opening celebration for deliverance from oppression is a rejoicing that comes not from unawareness or resignation but a conviction that unjust suffering and maltreatment will be overcome.
The psalm represents the joy/hope that comes from living through the struggle for political, social and economic justice.
The plea for restoration shows that the opposite of joy is suffering rather than sadness.
Yet justice and bearing fruit requires the hardwork of sowing seeds
2nd Reading: Phil 3:8-14
A Central theme in this letter is the issue of the nature of Christian unity. Are we unified by uniformity in externals that give no room for new paradigms or a unity in diversity brought by having one Father, sharing the same grace of Christ and having the same Spirit from our faith in the Gospel (Phil 1:27)?
Paul asserts here that Christian unity starts with the gospel and ends with the resurrection from the dead for those who realise the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
Paul exhorts to knowledge, a growth in knowledge of Christ and fellowship with him as the task of every individual believer, everything else is loss.
Paul also exhorts to a mentality of continuous metanoia, always leaving the past to strive for a greater future.
Paul points out that basing on Law leads to a character of self-righteousness whereas basing on faith in Christ obtains for the believer a righteousness divinely imparted, a gift. This latter provides the experience of the power of Christ’s resurrection in one’s life.
Thoughts: - What is the divine gift through Christ? Order or Ambiguity? How may a combination of both in the life of the Christian be exemplified in daily choices?
Gospel: John 8: 1-11
Salvation of the Guilty Comes by New Ways
John employs this story to demonstrate his non-condemnation theme of Jesus’ coming already mentioned in 1:17 and 3:16-17. The world stands condemned under the Mosaic law, Grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ to offer a way out of condemnation. A Character study:
¨ Woman as victim: She is used for her beauty and ability to ensure male satisfaction and pleasure then repaid with destruction of her self.
¨ Woman as oppressor: A breach of loyalty to husband (A married man having an unmarried woman is not considered adultery though so, in our own Christian context today). She possibly preys on other men for sexual/financial needs portraying her husband as inadequate to satisfy her.
¨ Scribes and Pharisees at woman: They value Law over female human life; unconcerned with true justice, for the man caught in the very act is treated as above the law and set free. (Dt 22:22).
¨ Scribes/Pharisees at Jesus: They set out to have Jesus contradict Moses as proof that Jesus is not the Messiah. Their belief is that the Messiah must faithfully continue tradition and law.
¨ JESUS: In the stance of teacher, He stoops and writes with his finger alluding that Law was written with the Finger of Yahweh (Dt 9:10) on Stone. He asks them to Stone if they have never breached law. Jesus writes a new law of a way out of condemnation merited through sin.
¨ Jesus straightens the first time to set scribes (akin to canon lawyers) and Pharisees (Purists stuck to an ideal of moral purity by any means) right and again to set woman right.
¨ Jesus applies Moses’ Law: Jesus stands trial seemingly as having gained repute to be lax and liberal regarding the law. Mosaic Law required two for someone to be put to death (Dt 17:6)so He pronounces her free.
Thoughts: - Jesus practices an equal concern for women’s ‘life’ like men’s ‘life’ is valued in society.
THEMES FOR HOMILIES/REFLECTIONS
1. Moving From the Surface to the Depths : Young adults are concerned with identity, relationships and career. How do the readings speak on these? A surface level appreciation brings you to side with the conqueror Babylonians, everybody loves victory (1st Reading). Or to side with reaping in joy, for today sells all sorts of ways to make money without having to do any work. (psalm) Or to side with Indian success rings, magic charms, occult rituals that promise success not a deeper personal knowledge of Christ (2nd reading); or to side with the moralists, exacting, quick to condemn and unforgiving in the name of promoting a moral and orderly society (Gospel). The readings reveal that these ultimately lead to disaster while Israelites live today, Babylon is gone; the educated scribes and the Pharisees turn back in shame. In serious issues as identity, relationships and career we should shift from first impressions, shallowness, superficiality, to exercise more and deeper exploration and thought into understanding oneself, one’s partner and one’s goals. We must seek underlying principles of mutual growth/happiness and life to the full to discern choices. Yahweh is on the side of the oppressed; revealing each one’s true future every day, depth is needed to perceive it. For those who sow in tears they reap treasure while they sing—patience, persistence and perseverance in work is the way to career success—St Paul teaches that acquiring a depth of knowledge and companionship is the secret of sharing the power of another’s life. Jesus demonstrates that the proper use of law is to restore life; to lift the other up, not to condemn for a guilt you too share in a different way. Seeking depth leads to the experience of great things that bring the divine blessings of security, wealth, a good spouse & family, filling us with joy. Amen
2. Religion Versus Righteousness: The Practice of Stoning Women and Setting Men Free- Society, tribe and many times church hides behind law and religion to deprive women of divine gifts—mercy, happiness, forgiveness, vocation, speech, justice, reconciliation, power and authority—right-living which is treated as the sole preserve of males. Every new generation clings to these old ways and stigmatizes and oppresses any woman who lays claim to these free gifts of the divine Trinity. As Paul points out such clinging to laws breeds self righteousness that deprives of the experience of the power of Christ’s life death and resurrection . The 1st reading offers an oracle of hope to women to remember not their past experience of oppression but to perceive and be open to the new things Yahweh is doing in their lives that will convert all wild beasts, jackals and ostriches to give the Trinity honour. The psalm exhorts women, for these treasures to return, to labour at sowing the seeds of mercy, happiness, forgiveness, vocation, speech, justice, reconciliation, power and authority. The gospel assures that Jesus’ presence for women is the presence of getting their due and finding mercy for their faults. With Jesus the afore silent woman, speaks and is heard; with Jesus the afore guilty woman finds equal treatment of mercy as her male lover. With Jesus even greater things will happen for women to celebrate and rejoice alongside their male counterparts.
3. Near Death Experience as Gift for Conversion– Many of us have had a Christian upbringing and heard a lot of preaching and teaching; We eat at the table of the Eucharist; some of us have become priests and religious or active in some apostolic groups. Have these brought us the kind of conversion that imbibes a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ showing itself in an upright life that can accept others and treat them with reverence as creatures of the Divine Trinity? Would the first reading find us guilty of dishonouring the Trinity by preying on others, by wicked and oppressive behavior or by a lack of concern towards our spouse and children? In our gospel, a person is brought to conversion by a narrow death escape. Once, a man who had no care for the Trinity despite his Christian upbringing was ill and went to the hospital. Without a test dose he was injected with penicillin and passed on. He witnessed himself out; above his body watching nurses and doctors frantically trying to wake him up. His soul was then transported to a beautiful garden beside a river where he rejoiced in the bliss till a loud sound got him angry at the disturbance and he awoke on the hospital bed. The experience turned his life around. He started to go to church and read spiritual books; asking questions to know deeper and led a sober and moral life. Do we need a near death experience now to turn around? St Paul exhorts us that as we improve knowledge and fellowship with Christ , we experience the power of his life, death and resurrection in our life, for Jesus is the True teacher, the giver of grace, the one who acquits guilt, the one who restores dignity and happiness, Jesus is our defense in the face of wickedness, Jesus is our link to divine mercy, Jesus is our peace. Thus perceiving the great things the Trinity does in we who live out our faith we be filled with joy.
4. A New Way- Children, what should happen to someone who does a really really bad thing that hurts others? What if your mother or father has done a really bad thing how would you treat them? What if you do a really really bad thing what do you want to be done to you? In our gospel a man and a woman do a really bad thing, for which the punishment is death. But, the man is left to go free and the woman is brought for Jesus to agree that they stone the woman until she dies. Is this correct? How? (answers) Is this justice? To be just, means to treat another in the same way you want to be treated. This is the new way Jesus teaches. If you don't want someone to hit or bully you don't hit or bully anyone, if you want someone to help you, always; if you want to be forgiven when you make a mistake forgive others when they make mistakes. If we all did this how would our world be? That is why St Paul says we should know Jesus more and stay close to Jesus so that we will have the power to treat others justly and become friends of Jesus. How can we know more about Jesus? (answers) How can we stay close to Jesus? (answers) So will we use the rest of Lent to forgive others and help them and do other good things? Did the woman go away happy? So too when we do as Jesus says we become happy, great things happen to us and our families and we will be filled with joy AMEN.
A RESURRECTION PRIESTHOOD
You Can't Focus Until You'Ve Got A Target To Aim At.
Lent
should be lived in our day like people who know of the resurrection;
better still like those who believe in it. Thus our Lenten reflection on
our sins of commission and omission do not become a discouragement, a
time to find someone to label a worse sinner and condemn for self
justification, nor a falling back on Old Testament ways because we find
New Testament ways hard to live with.
Whether
it be in the exercise of our baptismal or ministerial priesthood Lent
could be a time to let go of our errors and past ways that aren’t
working and open ourselves up to
divine new ways. A time to deepen our spiritual knowledge and soul
experience of Christ in painful sowing and find again at Easter our
life, our joy & a renewed self for mission.
So what is the target of your ministry? What
is your community of accountability whose oppression brought you to
become a messenger of the gospel? How much have you achieved in
flourishing their life? Do
you still remember and work at it? A ministry without its target runs
in circles like the Israelites in the desert oblivious of the nearness
of the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Jesus
straightens up to remind the scribes and Pharisees their formation and
knowledge is to serve liberation by love not liberation by purging
society of persons they can’t
tolerate. We can succeed TOGETHER, good and bad; woman and man; powerful
and weak; obedient & guilty. We don’t need to get rid of others to
thrive, for there are many ways and the divine treasures are abundant.
Jesus straightens up a second time to grant a guilty person a second chance. Becoming a saint is a process of always letting go of our guilt to Jesus and grabbing our second chances. Why wait? Why not now? Jesus
demonstrates his ability to bring that which was declared dead (from
stoning) to life. St Paul asserts that with Christ we are powerful
beyond measure and what we could not accomplish in our 20, 30, 40, 50
years of life, a day with Christ can revive and set on course. The
vision of these great things the Lord does will fill us with the joy we
long for. Amen
