FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, YR C
Isaiah 43:16-20; Psalm 126;
Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11
“BEHOLD I MAKE SOMETHING NEW”
This Sunday’s readings once again emphasise God’s mercy. In these readings we are taught ‘How to leave the past behind embrace a new beginning’. How can we leave the past behind.
The first is found in Isaiah’s prophecy “Remember no more the former things, think no more of the former things”. This means that we must not let what happened in the past prevent God’s grace in our lives in the present. It is not important to God what we were or did in the past. What matters is our response today. Your past sin, however great, can be swallowed up by God’s mercy. Give Him a chance in your life because He wants to do new things for you. God invites us to step up and out of the past no matter what it is. Are you willing to let go of the past?
Secondly, we must be able to perceive new things. In the first reading we read ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing: right now it is sprouting up, do you not perceive it?’ We must begin to have a vision of what God can do in our lives. What He can do with us when we give ourselves totally to Him. We must not look back, but look forward to a new life. This season of Lent is a season to look forward to some newness and change in our lives. Let God do something new and unthinkable in our lives.
Thirdly, do not grieve for what you have lost. Paul said that for the love of Christ he left everything behind and considers it a loss. the difficulty to leave all we have is because of the gains we have had no matter what they are in our former life. sometimes it’s difficult to let it all go with its supposed joys and benefits. But let us trust what Paul says and imitate him by looking forward to what we will gain. In this season, God is pulling us away from some things, but we must be willing to let them go. We must focus on what we will gain. If we focus on what we will lose, we will miss the beauty of what God can do in our lives. Do not grieve over the loss of a life of sin, but be joyful over the grace and fulfilment of life in Jesus.
Fourthly, we must move forward. We must continue to do good. Doing good and trusting God has never been easy. Sometimes it is not clear what is really happening in our lives, or our prayers seem stale. St Ignatius calls them moments of desolation. His advice is to keep praying and doing good, continuing to believe, because God will make your efforts bear fruit in his time.
The fifth point is what Jesus says to the woman at the end of the Gospel ‘go and henceforth sin no more’. Her life of sin must come to an end. Our life of sin must end to make way for a life of holiness. We are not forgiven in order to sin more. There must be a change in our life. If you want to be a new person, you cannot continue doing the old things. Jesus forgives us, but we must agree to become better. We must let go of a life of sin and allow the Lord to remake us. Today, in this Mass, each of us stands before Jesus. He looks at us and invites us to a new life with the words: “Go and sin no more”.
What is your response?
BY Rev. Fr. Delight Carbonu
