Reflection/Homily: Fifth (5th) Sunday of
Lent Year C
Homily: The Power of Divine Friendship
The
history of the Israelites was punctuated with several ups and downs. After the
Babylonian exile, they had to begin life afresh with little or no hope. It was
difficult for them to hope for a brighter future because they had lost their
friendship with God. God restored this friendship by promising them restoration
and hope. That is why in the first reading (Is. 43:16-21) we see God’s promise
of restoration and hope. He urged the Israelites to forget the past because He
was doing a new thing in their lives.
In
the gospel reading (Jn. 8:1-11), we see a practical example of God’s promise of
hope and restoration in the life of the adulterous woman. After being caught in
adultery and seeing the people’s readiness to stone her to death, she lost
every hope of survival until Jesus intervened. By that sinful act, she lost her
friendship with her family, with the society and with God but Jesus’ promise
was to do a new thing in her life – to restore this lost friendship.
Today,
God also addresses this message to us in a special way. Through the first
reading, He reminds us of the wonders He had done in the history of man and
invites us to trust Him based on these testimonies. This invitation is a call
to repentance, to abandon and forget our old and evil way of life and embrace a
new and better way of life.
