FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT 25

06 APRIL 2025: 5TH SUNDAY LENT: ISAIAH 43. 16-21; PHILIPPIANS 3. 8-14; JOHN 8. 1-11 Focus: There is a mountain of difference between God’s way of acting and human’s. God never judges or condemns but humans are so eager to do so 1. One grievous malaise of our society is the spirit of judgment, accusation, and condemnation. Many are so eager to judge, accuse and condemn others so unjustly, uncharitably, and disproportionately. A sense of righteousness and morality is good and needed. Certainly, we cannot take lightly the wrongs or justify them. A permissive tendency to allow and even glorify the immoral is another extreme. 2. But the whole problem is a spirit of double standards, one for oneself and the other for others. People become so lenient and indulgent towards their own wrongs but so exacting and condemning towards others’. They rashly and severely condemn others but conveniently and hypocritically condone themselves. They label others as sinners while they project themselves as saints. 3. The people of Jesus’ time especially the Pharisees and scribes were this type. They impose and apply rigid laws over others but are evasive toward themselves. They catch a woman in adultery and present her to Jesus to sentence her to death by stoning as per the law. Their intention was very clear. It was not because they wanted Jesus’ judgment but rather to trap him. 4. The law is very clear and if Jesus adheres to it, then they can question his clamour for mercy. How can he preach so much about mercy and compassion but say, stone her to death? But if he says, let her not be punished but be left free, then they can blame him for defying the law. How can breach the law but claim himself to be a religious man which is essentially law-abiding? In either case, Jesus will be caught on the wrong foot. 5. Jesus states “Let the one who has no sin throw the first stone”. What divine wisdom! What a condescending mercy of God! The point here is not permissibility toward sin. Jesus in no way shields sin or dilutes its gravity. If it were so, Jesus would not directly ask the adulterous woman, "sin no more". He does not tell the people, It is okay, leave her; he does not also directly defend her, questioning, who does not have sin. 6. He directly appeals to their inner conscience. He urges them to self-focus and self-discovery. He confronts their mentality of double standards. He puts them in the face with their own sinfulness and thus their own culpability. They are so eager to punish the woman. But what about themselves? Do they not look at themselves? Do they not think of their own sin that deserves similar punition? 7. Jesus brings to light forcefully the unconditioned mercy of God that goes beyond measures. He is a God who does not count the quantity of our wrongdoing. Sin may abound but His mercy superabounds. He is a God who promises through the prophet Isaiah 43. 16-21: Behold, I am doing a new thing; I will make a way and give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people. 8. God is offering the bounty of His mercy and invites us not to sin anymore from now on. So what does this imply? As God says through the prophet: Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Do not be weighed down by the faulty past. Start anew. 9. Imitate St Paul and count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Count them as rubbish, in order that we may gain Christ and be found in him. We share in his sufferings so that we may also obtain the glory of the resurrection. We shall forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. Direction: Like St Paul, let us resolve: I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us surge ahead with the power of God’s forgiveness to live a renewed life (REFLECTION 2 FROM 2021) Today’s Word of God invites our attention to God’s merciful intervention in human life. Especially in situations of accusation, judgment, and condemnation, in situations of ‘no other way’, in situations when we feel that we are lost and no one can save us, in such situations, God enters and reverses the whole course of things. In the gospel, an adulterous woman is accused, judged, and condemned. The main issue is not so much innocence or wrong. The whole focus is on God intervening in our difficult and desperate times. And he is always merciful and never condemns anyone however sinful one is. That is why in the gospel Jesus rescues the adulterous woman from stoning by the crowd. He forgives her and changes her life. The question is not the sin of the woman to be punished, but each one's sin to be realized and judged. The end is not condemnation but transformation. The purpose is not the termination of the sinner, but the elimination of sin. Jesus says, "Let one without sin cast the first stone on the woman". This is a clear call for this self-focus and self-discovery. This will lead to genuine repentance and conversion, and this leads also to empathetic forgiveness and charity. It is not leniency or compromise concerning sin and wrong, it is not minimizing it or justifying or defending it. He does not tell them, not to stone her; and this implies that sin is certainly culpable and punishable. He sends her away, commanding her not to sin anymore. This indicates clearly that sin is certainly grave and detestable, and therefore must be avoided and overcome. Direction: Let us keep aside our hypocrisy to project ourselves as just and blame others as sinful. We must remember that righteousness is different from self-righteousness. Ultimately it is God who judges us