5th Sunday of Lent, Cycle C


1st Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

Announcement of a New Exodus (Continuation)
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[16] Thus says the LORD,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
[17] who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
[18] "Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
[19] 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.
[20] The wild beasts will honour me,
The jackals and the ostriches;
For I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
[21] The people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.

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Commentary:

43:14-21. This oracle is part of the doctrinal core of the "Book of Consolation"
(40:1-48:22), where we can see the exodus from Egypt as the prototype of every
instance of liberation brought about by the Lord. Its most direct reference would
be to the return of those exiled in Babylon. The original exodus from Egypt was
quite remarkable and well worth pondering; but this exodus is truly "new", surpas-
sing what happened in former times (cf. vv. 18-19). This prophecy is very care-
fully constructed. It first acknowledges God by giving an impressive list of divine
titles, repeated several times: Lord, Redeemer, Holy One of Israel, Creator, King
(vv. 14-15); then comes the announcement of the new exodus based on traditions
to do with the first exodus, without mentioning it specifically (vv. 16-21); it recalls,
with sadness, yet serenity, the people's infidelities (vv. 22-24); and it ends with
God asserting his forgiveness in the context of a "rib", that is, a "legal hearing"
(vv. 25-28).

The prophet's words are designed to fill the people with hope that they will soon
be able to return home, and also with the energy to undertake the religious resto-
ration of Israel. But they are also a reminder to people at all times that God never
abandons his chosen ones, and a constant encouragement to renew their fervor.
The only proviso is that they must have recourse to the mercy of God and sin-
cerely admit their sins. Thus, we find St Gregory the Great interpreting the "suit"
in v. 26 as describing the examination of conscience that leads to the confession
of sins: "The conscience accuses, reason judges, fear binds, and suffering tor-
tures" ("Moralia in Job", 25,7, 12-13).

2nd Reading: Philippians 3:8-14

The Righteousness of God Is Better Than That of the Law (Continuation)
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[8] Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and
count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith
in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; [10] that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings becoming
like him in his death, [11] that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the
dead.

[12] Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to
make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

The Spiritual Athlete
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[13] Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do,
forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press
on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

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Commentary:

8. St Paul has a great love for his people. In Romans he shows that he would be
ready to accept any sacrifice "for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen of the
flesh" (Rom 9:3f). However, he recognizes that everything in which he gloried be-
fore his conversion is worthless in comparison with the grace of knowledge of
Christ: that is the hidden treasure, the precious pearl referred to in Gospel para-
bles (cf. Mt 13:44-46). For "once a person experiences the riches of Christ the
Lord, he looks down on everything else: property, wealth and honors he views as
filth. For there is nothing that can compare with that supreme treasure, nothing
that can be placed beside it" ("St Pius V Catechism", IV, 11, 15).

9. St Paul makes the distinction between "a righteousness of my own" attainable
by personal effort, and that which comes from God. The former is the righteous-
ness a person can attain by fulfilling the Mosaic Law; it is a good thing, but it is
insufficient to give one the full revelation of God in Christ, insufficient to give one
a share in the glory of his Resurrection (vv. 10-11). For that, one needs to have
righteousness from God, that is, supernatural grace: "not the justice by which
he is himself just, but the justice by which he makes us just, namely, the justice
which we have as a gift from him and by which we are renewed in the spirit of our
mind. And not only are we considered just, but we are truly said to be just, and
we are just" (Council of Trent, "De Iustificatione", chap. 7). For a more detailed
explanation of the concept of the righteousness that comes from God, see the
note on Romans 1:17.

10-12. The calling 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 (cf. 1 Tim 2:4), that is, to know God
himself. The Apostle bears witness to this when he says that "Christ Jesus has
made me his own." However, he also says that, in order to grow in knowledge of
Christ and enjoy God in heaven, one needs to strive to share in Christ's sufferings.
"The Christian is certainly bound both by need and by duty to struggle with evil
through many afflictions and to suffer death; but, as one who has been made a
partner in the paschal mystery and has been configured to the death of Christ,
he will go forward, strengthened by hope, to the resurrection" (Vatican II, "Gau-
dium Et Spes", 22). This struggle, which sometimes calls for heroism, is usual-
ly pitched in the incidents of one's ordinary day. Heroism in the everyday battle
proves the sincerity of our love and is a sure way to holiness.

"Certainly our goal is both lofty and difficult to attain. But please do not forget
that people are not born holy. Holiness is forged through a constant interplay of
God's grace and man's response. As one of the early Christian writers says, re-
ferring to union with God, 'Everything that grows begins small. It is by constant
and progressive feeding that it gradually grows big' (St Mark the Hermit, "De Lege
Spirituali", 172). So I say to you, if you want to become a thorough-going Chris-
tian--and I know you do, even though you often find it difficult to conquer yourself
or to keep climbing upwards with this poor body--then you will have to be very at-
tentive to the minutest of details, for the holiness that our Lord demands of you
is to be achieved by carrying out with love of God your work and your daily duties,
and these will almost always consist of ordinary little things" (St. J. Escriva,
"Friends of God", 7).

"That if possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead": St Paul is referring
here to the glorious resurrection of the just, whom the power of the risen Christ
will rescue from the domain of death. At the second coming of the Lord, both the
souls of the blessed in heaven and the souls of those who are still in purgatory
undergoing the temporal punishment due to sins they committed will be reunited
with their now glorified bodies. The reprobate will also rise, but their destiny is to
suffer for ever the pains of hell in body and soul (cf. Second Council of Lyons,
"Profession of Faith of Michael Paleologue").

Man's supernatural last end consists in knowing God as he is and enjoying him
in heaven. When he attains this, man finds complete fulfillment. His life on earth
has been a route leading to this perfection, a perfection which can only be fully
attained by resurrection in glory. The Apostle recognizes that he needs the help
of grace to be "perfect" (that is, faithful unto death) and thereby attain the prize
promised by God: perseverance right to the end is not entirely a function of the
merit a person has built up; it is a gift from God (cf. "De Iustificatione", chap. 13).
However, God does not dispense man from generously responding to grace in or-
der to attain holiness. As St Teresa of Avila says. "It matters a great deal, it is
essential [...], that one have very great, very determined, resolution not to halt un-
til one attains it, come what may, whatever happens, however much one suffers,
however much people may gossip, whether I get there or not, even if I die on the
way or am not able to face all the effort involved, even if the world collapses
around me" ("Way of Perfection", 35, 2).

12-14. Growth in holiness always demands an effort. St Paul here uses a vivid
comparison -- races in the stadium. He describes ascetical struggle in terms of
enjoyable supernatural sport. Realizing that he has not reached perfection, he
strains to win: Christ already made him his own (cf. v. 12) by entering his life on
the Damascus road; from that moment onwards he has striven single-mindedly
to serve God.

Our Lord helps everyone to discover his or her particular supernatural vocation.
In response to that calling a person should seek to serve God in such a way that
"everything good he does, interiorly or externally, he does for the glory and plea-
sure of God, like a loyal slave who gives everything he gets to his master. More-
over," St John of Avila goes on, "even though he has worked as a servant for ma-
ny years past, he is not easy-going or careless [...]. He always has that 'hunger
and thirst for righteousness' (Mt 5:6): he puts little weight on everything he has
done, thinking of how much he has received and how much is due to the Lord he
serves" ("Audi, Filia", 92).

In making one's way towards perfection it is important to be always trying to ad-
vance spiritually. "What does walking mean?", St Augustine asked himself; "I
shall answer very briefly: it means going forward [...]. Examine yourself. You
should always be unhappy with what you are, if you want to attain what you are
not yet. For when you were content with yourself, you stayed where you were,
because if you say 'Enough', you are finished that very minute. Always grow, al-
ways walk on, always advance; do not stop on the way, do not turn back, do not
go off course. One who does not advance is standing still; one who returns to the
things he already abandoned is going backwards; one who goes off course com-
mits apostasy. It is better to hobble along the road than run on any other route"
("Sermon" 169, 15, 18).

Gospel Reading: John 8:1-11

The Adulterous Woman
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[2] Early in the morning He (Jesus) came again to the temple; all the people
came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. [3] The scribes and the Pha-
risees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the
midst [4] they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of
adultery. [5] Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you
say about her?" [6] This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge
to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground.
[7] And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, "Let him
who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."[8] And once
more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. [9] But when they
heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was
left alone with the woman standing before Him. [10] Jesus looked up and said to
her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" [11] She said, "No
one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."

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Commentary:

1-11. This passage is absent from many ancient codices, but it was in the Vul-
gate when the Magisterium, at the Council of Trent, defined the canon of Sacred
Scripture. Therefore, the Church regards it as canonical and inspired, and has
used it and continues to use it in the liturgy. It is also included in the New Vul-
gate, in the same position as it occupied before.

St. Augustine said that the reason doubts were raised about the passage was
that it showed Jesus to be so merciful that some rigorists thought it would lead
to a relaxation of moral rules--and therefore many copyists suppressed it from
their manuscripts (cf. "De Coniugiis Adulterinis", 2, 6).

In commenting on the episode of the woman caught in adultery Fray Luis de Gra-
nada gives these general considerations on the mercy of Christ: "Your feelings,
your deeds and your words should be akin to these, if you desire to be a beauti-
ful likeness of the Lord. And therefore the Apostle is not content with telling us to
be merciful; he tells us, as God's sons, to put on 'the bowels of mercy' (cf. Colos-
sians 3:12). Imagine, then, what the world would be like if everyone arrayed them-
selves in this way.

"All this is said to help us understand to some degree the great abundance of
the goodness and compassion of our Savior, which shine forth so clearly in
these actions of His, for [...] in this life we cannot know God in Himself; we can
know Him only through His actions. [...] But it should also be pointed out that
we should never act in such a way in view of God's mercy, that we forget about
His justice; nor should we attend to His justice forgetting about His mercy; for
hope should have in it an element of fear, and fear an element of hope" ("Life of
Jesus Christ", 13, 4).

1. We know that on a number of occasions our Lord withdrew to the Mount of
Olives to pray (cf. John 18:2; Luke 22:39). This place was to the east of Jerusa-
lem; the Kidron Valley (cf. John 18:1) divided it from the hill on which the temple
was built. It had from ancient times been a place of prayer: David went there to
adore God during the difficult period when Absalom was in revolt (2 Samuel 15:
32), and there the prophet Ezekiel contemplated the glory of Yahweh entering
the temple (Ezekiel 43:1-4). At the foot of the hill there was a garden, called
Gethsemane or "the place of the oil-press", an enclosed plot containing a plan-
tation of olive trees. Christian tradition has treated this place with great respect
and has maintained it as a place of prayer. Towards the end of the fourth century
a church was built there, on whose remains the present church was built. There
are still some ancient olive trees growing there which could well derive from those
of our Lord's time.

6. The question put by the scribes and Pharisees has a catch: our Lord had of-
ten shown understanding to people they considered sinners; they come to Him
now with this case to see if He will be equally indulgent--which will allow them to
accuse Him of infringing a very clear precept of the Law (cf. Leviticus 20:10).

7. Jesus' reply refers to the way stoning was carried out: those who witnessed
the crime had to throw the first stones, and then others joined in, to erase the
slur on the people which the crime implied (cf. Deuteronomy 17:7). The question
put to Jesus was couched in legal terms; He raises it to the moral plane (the ba-
sis and justification of the legal plane), appealing to the people's conscience. He
does not violate the law, St. Augustine says, and at the same time He does not
want to lose what He is seeking--for He has come to save that which was lost:
"His answer is so full of justice, gentleness and truth. [...] O true answer of Wis-
dom. You have heard: Keep the Law, let the woman be stoned. But how can sin-
ners 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 ap-
plied, but not by its transgressors" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33, 5).

11. "The two of them were left on their own, the wretched woman and Mercy. 
But the Lord, having smitten them with the dart of justice, does not even deign
to watch them go but turns His gaze away from them and once more writes on
the ground with His finger. But when the woman was left alone and they had all
gone, He lifted up His eyes to the woman. We have already heard the voice of
justice; let us now hear the voice of gentleness. I think that the woman was the
more terrified when she heard the Lord say, 'Let him who is without sin among
you be the first to throw a stone at her,' [...] fearing now that she would be pu-
nished by Him, in whom no sin could be found. But He, who had driven away
her adversaries with the tongue of justice, now looking at her with the eyes of
gentleness asks her, 'Has no one condemned you?' She replies, 'No one, Lord.'
And He says, 'Neither do I condemn you; I who perhaps you feared would punish
you, because in Me you have found no sin.' Lord, can it be that You favor sin-
ners? Assuredly not. See what follows" 'Go and sin no more.' Therefore the Lord
also condemned sin, but not the woman' (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33,
5-6).

Jesus, who is the Just One, does not condemn the woman; whereas these peo-
ple are sinners, yet they pass sentence of death. God's infinite mercy should
move us always to have compassion on those who commit sins, because we
ourselves are sinners and in need of God's forgiveness.



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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.


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