April 7, 2019
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Cycle C
Our Sunday Readings 6-21 1 : 3 4 -6 AH 26:1 14 ISAI 1 LM PSA ANS 3:8 I 1 LIPP :1-1 8 PHI N JOH
ISAIAH 43:16-21 Reading closely 1. What has God done for his people? 2. What do these past events reveal about God? 3. What are all the new things God promises to do? 4. When will these things happen? 5. How might people have responded? 6. How might the prophet have felt? Living the word 7. In what ways has God led you? 8. When have you hesitated to follow God? 9. When have you eagerly followed God?
THE FIRST READING Devastation This passage was written after terrible things had happened to the Israelites. The Babylonians had looted and burned Jerusalem and its temple. After capturing the Jewish leadership, the Babylonians marched them into Babylon to spend the rest of their days in exile.
New Paths The first exodus Israel’s story formally began when God led them out of Egypt. God showed his great power over both the Red Sea and the attacking Egyptians (vv. 16-17). God thus proved that his chosen people should trust and rely on him. This passage assures God’s people that just as God acted mightily in the past, so will God act again (vv. 18-19a). In fact, what God will do for his people will be even more impressive than the exodus. As God leads his people back home from Babylon, he will make their path smooth, he will protect them from wild animals, and he will provide ample food and water to sustain them.
The things of long ago consider not; behold, I am doing something new!
by Edrianne Ezell | oursundayreadings.wordpress.com |
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IGNORANCE OF SCRIPTURE IS IGNORANCE OF CHRIST JOHN 8:1-11 Entering the word Imagine you’re one of the people in this story. 1. Describe your surroundings. What all do you see, hear, smell? 2. What are the people around you saying and doing? 3. What has Jesus been saying? 4. What are you doing? 5. How do the scribes and Pharisees arrive? Describe them. 6. How does the woman seem to you? 7. How do bystanders react to their arrival? 8. How does Jesus react? 9. How do people react when Jesus says who should throw the first stone? 10. What all might the woman have thought and felt? 11. What all might the scribes and Pharisees have thought and felt? 12. How does Jesus behave as the crowd disperses? 13. How do Jesus and the woman interact with one another at the end? 14. What might the woman have expected from Jesus? 15. What happens to the woman? Living the word 16. What has your time of contemplation and prayer revealed to you? 17. How does this story challenge you? How does it console you? THE GOSPEL READING Teaching in the temple Jesus has been drawing attention to himself as he teaches in the temple. Jewish leaders are disturbed both by what Jesus says and his claim to have the authority to say it. They want him out of there. Stoning In charging the woman with adultery, the leaders are upholding Jewish law (see Lev 20:10; Dt 22:22-24). However, the woman’s partner was also guilty. The man may simply have escaped, but his absence suggests that the leaders are acting unfairly, though legally.
–ST. JEROME
In Dt 17:6-7 we learn that witnesses to a crime must be the first to carry out the punishment. The leaders have put themselves in a position where they themselves will be tested. Entrapment The leaders plan to use the woman to trap Jesus. If Jesus says not to punish the woman, then he breaks God’s law. If Jesus agrees the woman should be punished, then he breaks his own teaching about mercy. He wrote on the ground By writing (or merely doodling) on the ground, Jesus separates himself from the drama and forces a pause. Jesus will not be drawn into the tension and violence. For centuries people have speculated on what Jesus wrote on the ground. While their theories may interest us, what Jesus wrote (if anything) seems irrelevant. If what Jesus had written were important, then that information would have been preserved for us. PRAYER adapted from Pope Francis’ prayer for the Year of Mercy
Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and have told us that whoever sees you sees him. Show us your face and we will be saved. Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money, the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things, made Peter weep after his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief. You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with his anointing. In your holy name we pray. Amen.