FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Do Something New

As part of our Lenten mission, we recently heard a guest speaker tell us to “Give up worry for Lent.”  This can be a challenge for many of us, with so much trouble happening in our world today.  But even though many of us have felt this way and there has always been a certain anxiety present for generations, God has a message about this for us. 

In the first reading we hear the message, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new” (Is 43:18-19). Isaiah is telling us that the past is done, it can’t be changed — there is no sense worrying about it.  More importantly, God is doing something new with us right now. Then in the second reading, St. Paul, speaks to us of “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil 3:13).  All any of us have is this moment in time; so why not use it to feel the joy that Jesus offers us? As we near the end of Lent, the readings today remind us to let go of the past, to experience God’s forgiveness, and to look forward to the rebirth that the resurrection of Easter brings.

We also see this theme repeated in the chilling story in today’s Gospel reading.  When faced with the dangerous challenge from the Pharisees as to how to deal with the adulterous woman according to the law (whether or not to stone her to death), Jesus reveals his mercy.  When asked to judge the woman, Jesus responds, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he did something powerful: he bent down and wrote something in the dirt.  In other words, he directed everyone there to a moment of personal reflection on their own lives — something we all do before the sacrament of confession.  When he looked up, no one was left to judge the woman, and he said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go … and sin no more.” 

We all have those moments in life when we judge our fellow man — or ourselves.  But if we pause and look inward, we realize that we are not perfect and can benefit from God's forgiveness. Like the woman caught in adultery, we are challenged to leave the past behind and do something new.

–Brian Harvey

Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends.