By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
Fifth Sunday in Lent: April 3, 2022
Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11
We are at the end of such a significant week! We have loads of thoughts to reflect on and take to heart. Expectations, Celebration, Gratitude, Mystery, Wonder, were the feelings that dominated the week that has just passed! And today the dominant note is one of HOPE. The Liturgy of the Word too invites us to the same sentiment of faith. Last week the Liturgy called us to Celebrate. Every celebration is to reinforce the energy within persons or the community to go on with life – and following it right on, the Liturgy today calls us to journey on with hope.
Holy Father Pope Francis, when he greeted the faithful, for the first time, gathered at St.Peter’s Square – he said it in simple words: “Iniziamo un cammino, il vescovo e popolo!” Let’s begin a journey as Bishop and his people! A journey, he said; a journey with hope! Our Christian life is a indeed a journey, a race towards a finish as St. Paul says. Our lenten practices are a journey too – we have been following it: from the desert to the mountain, to the holy ground and the promised land. It is a journey to perfection.
A Journey needs a roadmap… and today’s Word of God provides us with the Roadmap, the Roadmap to Perfection, in three ‘P’s – Persevere, Prioritize and Progress.
For the Hebrews under slavery and burdensome labour, the prospect of journeying to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, was a fantasy. When they actually undertook it, they could not believe their own selves. The Psalmist expresses it so well, “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Israel, it was like in a dream!” (Ps 126:1) When they embarked on that journey, it was in no terms easy… they were faced with the endless desert, with no food and no water, they were faced with a sea with freedom on the other side and death approaching them from behind, they were faced with treachery within and immorality that abounded…but those who stuck on to the journey crossed the Jordan into their promised land.
Persevering through Problems, is an important ingredient towards success in faith. We see, in the first reading today, how this faith was rewarded for the people of Israel. The journey of Christian life is not different – with its own share of deserts and seas and temptations and death – but a disciple of Christ is called to Persevere right through these problems, and journey in faith.
What if we lose the vision, the direction, the energy… it is St. Paul again who instructs in various words… set your hearts on the thing above and on grace that Christ brings, he instructs. I consider everything as a loss, as a trash, as a garbage… because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. The second dimension of the roadmap to perfection, is Prioritising Christ above anything or anybody else in our daily life.
When our self-considerations of comfort and career, or our considerations of attachments and allegiances become more important than God, Christ and all that pertains to our circle of faith, we can easily lose direction, lack vision and get lost in the mire of daily concerns and personal glory. What we need to do is fix our gaze on Christ, look to Him and be radiant (Ps 34:5). Thus, we will journey on, with hope!
The third dimension of the roadmap is the most important! With the lost direction, with the lost time and with the negative experiences we can be caught up in the past. We see today a group of people who brought that lady to Jesus today… they we so impressed with themselves that they caught that lady sinning, they were so caught up with the law of the Moses given in the past, they were so involved in the fact that Jesus had insulted them so many times in so many ways, all things of the past… that they failed to see what was going on in the mind of that woman. The grief that was crying out from her eyes, the shame that was constricting her heart and her body, the anger that was swelling in her mind, the guilt that was tearing her apart – nothing mattered to those people who stood with stones in their hands. Jesus saw what they did not see! The person who was there on the ground waiting for the stones to be pelted, thinking to herself, it was better to die than to live, it was better to be stoned than to be looked at with the past in reference. It would have been easier for Jesus to send those self made judges away than to reassure that woman of her worth! Without a word on her burdensome past, Jesus tells her – Go and sin no more! Go… Go… Go on… To go on, with Christ in focus, to press on forgetting the past and to progress in the path of Christ…that is the call today!
With the hope that God awaits us there where we are headed to, we are called to progress. Falls, faults, failures and fake successes…let them not deter us. To rise, to restart and to resume our journey is an act of hope. That is what Jesus calls us to. To journey with hope, to never be discouraged but persevere through problems, to prioritise Christ without losing our focus, our vision, our direction, to progress constantly towards that fullness that Christ wishes to offer us.
Like pilgrims set on a journey towards the house of grace, we are called to journey on!!! The Compass is set… Christ is the coordinate points… Christ is the direction… God our Father and Mother awaits us at home… lets journey on, in the path that Christ has traced, with joy and with hope.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005 and has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (specialisation in Catechetics). He has a Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Catechetics and youth ministry at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the young towards a World of Peace and dialogue is the passion that fires him.