Martin Jumbam
Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, March 17, 2013 as the fifth and last Sunday of Lent – Year C. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Give me justice, O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge. Amen.”
Our first reading comes from Second Isaiah, which is generally called the “Book of the Consolation of Israel”. It looks forward to the promises of God’s redemption and restoration of Israel through a new exodus. The Jews are still held captive in Babylon but their deliverance is announced thanks to the power of the Lord, who rules the world and determines the course of human history. He delivered his people from Egypt and is now about to re-enact those wonders in a new exodus, which would be an even greater pledge of God’s love for his people. God would gather them anew to make them forever his people of choice as he leads them back to Zion from Babylon.
In the passage from Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus reveals himself as a compassionate Lord, whose love heals. The story of the woman caught in adultery is a true call to repentance. The woman’s sinfulness is not in any doubt because Jesus calls for her conversion now and in the future. Jesus saves where the scribes and Pharisees are crying for vengeance. But they confess their own guilt by tiptoeing away when Jesus is not looking, beginning with the eldest. Jesus, who is the Just One, does not condemn this woman, whereas these people, who are sinners, are quick to condemn her.
In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray that God’s infinite mercy should move us to always have compassion on our brothers and sisters who commit sin.
First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21.
Thus says the Lord, who made a way through the sea, a path in the great waters; who put chariots and horse in the field and a powerful army, which lay there never to rise again, snuffed out, put out like a wick: No need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before. See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wilds. The wild beasts will honour me, jackals and ostriches, because I am putting water in the wilderness (rivers in the wild) to give my chosen people drink. The people I have formed for myself will sing my praises.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
The prophet Isaiah is the first of the Major Prophets of the Bible, the second being Jeremiah, the third Ezekiel and the fourth Daniel. The prophet Isaiah is often considered the greatest of the prophets. He was born in about 765 BC of a Jerusalem aristocratic family. He received his prophetic vocation in 740 BC and his long ministry spanned a period of over forty years, a period dominated by the ever increasing threat to Israel and Judah by the Assyrians.
The Book of Isaiah covers three distinct periods of Israel’s history. The first part, chapters 1-39, was written by the prophet himself; the second and third parts were written by other prophets when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and after their return.
Our reading is taken from the second part of Isaiah generally referred to as “The Book of the Consolation of Israel”. The oppressor is no longer Assyria but Babylon, which conquered Jerusalem in 587-586 BC and deported the upper classes of Jerusalem and Judah into exile. Many years later (593 BC), Cyrus, king of the Persians, conquered Babylon and the Lord inspired him to issue a decree allowing those Jewish deportees who wished to return home to do so.
It is this deliverance that Second Isaiah celebrates in the reading of this day. It is the celebration of the glorious restoration of the people of God in Zion. Another exodus, similar to the one from Egypt, is in the making only that this one is truly new, surpassing what happened in former times. The prophet’s words are designed to fill the people with hope that they will soon return home where they will also undertake the religious restoration of Israel.
What message does this passage say to us living in the city of Douala today? It is a strong reminder to us that God never abandons his chosen ones. It also encourages us to renew our faith in God always. How can we do this? By sincerely admitting our wrongdoings and going to God for his mercy and forgiveness. When the Lord delivers us from the bondage of sin, as the Psalmist says, our mouth will be filled with laughter and our lips with song; and those who see our happiness will say to themselves: “What marvels the Lord has worked for them!” Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land. Those who are sowing in tears will sing they reap (Ps 125). Amen.
Second Reading: Philippians 3: 8-14.
I believe nothing will happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything else as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you, my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians is one of four letters that have customarily been called his “Captivity Epistles,” because they were written when the Apostle of the Gentiles was in prison. The other three are Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon. Since Saint Paul suffered imprisonment in Ephesus, Caesarea and Rome, it has not always been possible to say with certainly from where he wrote those letters, except perhaps for his letter to Philemon, which he wrote from Rome.
Philippi was an important commercial and historic city in Saint Paul’s time. Commercially, it was on the road that ran from east to west and anyone traveling from Asia Minor to Greece would have stopped there. Historically, Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, had built a fortified camp there in the 4th century before Christ, and it was called after him. The Romans overran it in 168 BC and Emperor Augustus later established it as a Roman colony, which meant its inhabitants enjoyed the same rights and privileges as those of any Italian city.
Saint Paul founded the Church of Philippi during his second apostolic journey to Europe around the year 50 or 51 AD. The Acts of the Apostles give a fairly detailed account of this visit in which he was accompanied by Silas, Timothy and Luke. Paul’s preaching made many converts but also some strong enemies, who worked against him, and even had him thrown in prison for sometime before forcing him to leave the city (Acts 16: 11-40).
In the passage of our meditation, Saint Paul warns his converts of Philippi against those who have been stirring trouble in other churches, the Judaizers, who want to impose the law of circumcision on all male believers, even though the First Council of Jerusalem had declared such an imposition on the Gentiles unnecessary (Acts 15: 6-21). These are the people Paul fought against throughout his missionary life. He reminds his converts that Christ is the only goal they should be aiming at. He cites his own case and tells them that everything he gloried in before his conversion is worthless in comparison with the grace of knowledge of Christ, who is the hidden treasure or the precious pearl referred to in the Gospel parables (Mt 13: 44-46).
He further says that the call to holiness, which every Christian receives, is not a reward for personal merit: it comes from God’s initiative; God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). But no one can be saved who is not willing to share Christ’s sufferings. The Christian must constantly strive to overcome evil, usually a painful struggle, to gain a place in God’s kingdom.
In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith, especially during this year which our Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has declared the Year of Faith. With our faith strengthened, we can then strain to win the only crown that matters: Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen.
Gospel Acclamation
“Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory. Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and that the Lord God of hosts may really be with you. Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory.” Let us now rise and receive the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace according to Saint John 8: 1-11.
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and began writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, Sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and don’t sin any more.’
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
In today’s Gospel we listen to the magnificent story of Christ’s mercy as he forgives the woman caught in adultery. It is the feast of the Tents, one of the joyous and important feasts of the Jews, which is interrupted for Jesus by this unfortunate incident. The scribes and the Pharisees catch a woman committing adultery, but since the woman cannot commit adultery alone, they quickly let go of the man and then bring the woman to Jesus. According to the Law of Moses such a woman should be stoned to death (Lev 20:10). They use this occasion to try to trap Jesus. If he agrees that she should be stoned to death, he can no longer be a merciful teacher. They know that Jesus has often shown understanding to people whom they judge as sinners. But if he forgives her, they will accuse him of infringing the Law. They are, however, silent on another law that states that “If a man has intercourse with another’s wife, both must die, adulterer and adulteress, and so Israel is rid of a plague” (Deut 22:22). So where is the man, the adulterer, we are tempted to ask?
Jesus’ reaction to the question posed to him is surprising. He says nothing but starts to write on the ground. It is only when the questions persist that he looks up and raises the issue from the legal level to the moral plane. He does not violate the Law because he does not argue that the woman is innocent, neither does he support adultery; he simply questions the innocence of the accusers themselves. He asks them to examine their own consciences and see if they themselves are innocent. As Saint Augustine wonders: “But how can sinners keep the Law and punish this woman? Let each of them look inside himself and enter the tribunal of his heart and conscience; there he will discover that he is a sinner. Let this woman be punished, but not by sinners; let the law be applied, but not by transgressors” (Saint Augustine, In Ioann. Evang.’ 33,5).
The woman’s accusers are at least honest with themselves. They readily recognize that they are not as honest men as they had at first thought they were and then tiptoe away, beginning with the eldest. Jesus goes back to his writing because he wants to give his accusers an honorable exit. They can tiptoe away without him seeing them, so they do not feel too ashamed to do so. Jesus and the woman are left alone. Saint Augustine puts it beautifully: “two are left: misery and mercy.” It is then that the woman hears the message of deliverance: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
This Gospel challenges us to keep away from all self-righteousness. We may be quick to condemn others and forget that we also stand in dire need of forgiveness ourselves. We may be tempted to cast the first stone but are we too without sin? We may see the speck in our brother’s eye but fail to see the beam in ours. If you are without sin, cast the first stone. What a challenge! That is what the Jews cannot do in this Gospel and they are honest enough to leave, one by one, beginning with their leaders. Let us pray for the courage to forgive others their trespasses so the God of mercy will forgive us ours. Amen.
Bon, je n'ai point fini de lire par contre je repasse dans la semaine
Posted by: femme légère algérienne | October 24, 2013 at 12:22 AM
Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec vous
Posted by: http://www.sexe-sexy.eu | October 27, 2013 at 12:27 AM