5th Sunday of Lent, Year C: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: God does not give up on us
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Readings: Is
43, 16-21; Phil 3, 8-14; Jn 8, 1-11
The message of
this Sunday is simply clear. This message says that we have a God who does not
give up on us; a God who reaches out to us to free us from our sinful past; a
God who comes to free us from the condemnation and death we have merited by our
sins and from the condemnation the world has passed on us because of our sins.
This message also charges us not to condemn other people when God is still
calling them tenderly to conversion. These messages are evident in the readings
of today.
To understand
the beautiful promises of renewal and new things from God to the people of
Israel in the first reading, it will be good to make a brief recap of the
historical background that led to them. The history of the people of Israel
that led to the exile in Babylon was punctuated by obstinacy to the
commandments of God. It was the stubbornness and sins of Israelites that led
them to exile in Babylon. After the fall of Northern Israel under the Persians,
the prophets of God warned the people of Southern Israel that Jerusalem will
also fall if they continue to live in their sins. But the people of Israel did
not heed their warnings.
Consequently,
the Babylonians marched on Jerusalem, defeated her, killed her king and many of
her people, and took many others into slavery. With that act of defeat and
slavery, Southern Israel was already written off from the face of the earth, a
replication of what happened to Northern Israel. However, when the people of
Israel saw the death sentence that was hanging on their necks in the land of
exile, they called on God for mercy and liberation, and God, who did not give
up on them or write them off despite their sins, heard them.
The first
reading of today was part of the promises of restoration from God to the people
of Israel. He promised to do new things in their lives and urged them to forget
their past evil lives, to move away from the memories of their past sinful
lives and then look into the future with hope. God made them to understand that
His novelty was not confined to the great deeds of old, but that He has already
started doing new great things in their lives. Dear friends, this is how God
relates to sinners who open themselves to Him. God did not give up on Israel
despite their past sinful stories because He does not rejoice in the death of
sinners. God always gives sinners opportunities to come back to Him. He calls
sinners tenderly to conversion. This message is also addressed to all of us.
The gospel of
today presents us a practical example of how God treats a sinner. It demonstrated
to us how Jesus helps sinners and wrongdoers to write another history of their
lives, how Jesus helps us to right the wrongs of our past lives, how God
tenderly calls sinners to sincere conversion, and how God frees sinners from
condemnation and death in the hands of other human beings, giving them another
chance.
The adulterous
woman in the gospel of today, like the people of Israel in exile, was an
example of someone whose faults and sins brought disaster and death sentence
upon her. Her case was not one of accusation because she was caught in the very
act of adultery. The requirement of the law (Lev 20:10; Deut. 22:13-24) for
such a crime was death. So, she had already been condemned by the law and the
people – she had been written off completely. What was staring her in the face,
as was the case of the people of Israel in exile, was death. However, dear
friends, there was someone who did not write her off, someone who did not give
up on her. That person was Jesus, and He freed her from death. He gave her
another chance. Jesus also challenges us not to condemn sinners but to treat
them with love, helping them to come out of their sins instead of writing them
off.
With this story,
the Church wants you to know that Jesus has not condemned you in your sins; He
has not given up on you, nor has He written you off. He knows that you still
have something positive to offer to the world. He wants to restore you to
goodness and glory; He has another chance for you; He has not condemned you, so
don’t give up on yourself; don’t condemn yourself. In fact, all of us have
attracted death by our sins, but Christ has lifted the death sentence from us
through His death on the cross.
Dear friends,
let us now embrace reconciliation with God, with ourselves and with our
neighbours through the sacrament of reconciliation this Lent, especially by
doing what St. Paul urges us to do in the second reading of today. Having been
freed from death by Christ and having been given another chance by Christ, the Church
invites us to emulate St. Paul by putting Christ at the centre of our lives and
then counting all worldly things and pleasures as a loss. Let us make sure that
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross on our behalf was never in vain. Let us
distance ourselves from anything that will lead us back to our old life of sin.
Let us end this homily with this beautify song:
‘What can wash away my sins, nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again, nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know, nothing but the Blood of Jesus.’
Peace be with
you.
Rev. Fr.
Isaac Chinemerem Chima
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