Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missal March-April 2022

5th Sunday of Lent (C)
1st week of the Psalter

FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is 43:16-21)
Thus says the Lord, who made a way through the sea and a path through mighty waters, who brought out chariots and horses, army and warriors together; they lie dead, never to rise again, extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old! Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will glorify me, jackals and ostriches, because I will provide water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen one. The people I formed for myself will proclaim my praise.” - The word of God.

Commentary on the first reading

The people deported to Babylon are about to leave and finally return to the Holy Land. The prophet imagines their journey home as a new exodus, indeed, an even more beautiful one. In the first exodus, God opened the Red Sea and the Egyptians became trapped there; in the second, there are no catastrophic events, but rather the people's journey is accompanied by a symphony of glorious events: a road appearing in the wilderness, rivers of water forming in the arid lands to bring life, ostriches and jackals applauding and singing for joy over the people returning to Israel. The life of everyone, including our own, can always be compared to an exodus: we leave a sad place, set out toward our true homeland, and travel through the wilderness. We can decide to complain constantly, as the Jews did during the first exodus, or to walk joyfully toward the destination, trusting and full of ardor, because God sustains us with many gifts. In other words: there are two taxis, one black (where people always grumble) and one white, full of hope. You can decide which one to get into.

SECOND READING

From the letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Philippians (Phil 3:8-14)
Brothers and sisters, I consider everything a loss because of the supreme value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have let go of all these things and consider them rubbish, in order to gain Christ and be found in him, having as my righteousness not that which comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith: so that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, participation in his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, in the hope of attaining the resurrection from the dead. I have certainly not reached the goal, nor have I arrived at perfection; but I strive to run to attain it, because I too have been conquered by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not yet consider myself to have attained it. I know only this: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I run toward the goal, the prize to which God calls us above, in Christ Jesus. - The word of God.

Commentary on the second reading

A song of love for Christ so lyrical, profound, and passionate is rarely found in the New Testament. Saint Paul is a great apostle, a missionary, a man of action like few others, but also a great mystic. We are accustomed to thinking of spiritual people as gaunt, silent, and passive. Let us then read the ardor of this magnificent, fiery heart: “I have been conquered by Christ... I consider everything rubbish in order to gain Christ... I run toward the goal so that I may always be with him...” Indeed, every action in the Church must have this driving force, as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus would say centuries later: without a beating heart, blood does not reach the body's extremities, and in the Body that is the Church, the heart is love. Not just any love, a generic love that ends up lacking strength and substance, but love for the person of Jesus. “If I had to choose between truth and Christ,” Fyodor Dostoevsky writes paradoxically and provocatively, “I would choose Christ.” Certainly, Christ is the truth, but the expression helps us understand that we do not fall in love with an abstract truth, but with a person: Jesus.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (Jn 8:1-11)
At that time, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he went back to the temple, and all the people came to him. And he sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, placed her in the middle, and said to him: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone women like this. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. However, since they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And bending down again, he continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So they were left alone, Jesus and the woman standing in the middle. Then Jesus stood up and said to her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” And she replied: “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” - The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

A woman caught in the very act of adultery could be stoned, according to what was written in the law of Moses (Leviticus, Exodus). However, this capital punishment was not applied automatically: each individual case was evaluated, and in Jesus' time it was rather rare for a death sentence to be imposed. If Jesus had answered that the woman should be killed, they would have accused him of archaic rigorism; if, on the contrary, he had ruled that she should be set free, they would have accused him of teaching precepts contrary to the Law. Jesus sees into people's hearts, overturns the scene and... surprise! Those who accuse become accused in turn before God's tribunal: it is the Pharisees who are full of sins. Jesus does not absolve the sinner: in fact, he says to throw the stones, but before doing so they must consider themselves “without sin.” Unable to admit such a thing, they withdraw. Jesus truly is judge, but he did not come to condemn: he is among us to absolve. It is also necessary to be repentant. The Pharisees do not seem repentant, and the adulterous woman - to tell the truth - does not seem to be either. The scene is as if suspended... but the sentence is clear. Jesus is the one who forgives, and from the cross this will be his word: “Father, forgive them.”