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The Catholic Telegraph
March 30, 2001The first reading for this fifth Sunday of Lent provides the conclusion to this year’s mini-course in salvation history. The readings we have heard from the Old Testament have taught us about the basic identity of God’s people, about God’s approach to Abraham and Moses, about the conclusion of the people’s wandering as they entered the promised land. This final piece is from the Israelites’ time of exile and God is promising to bring them home again and relate to them in a new way: "Behold I am doing something new."
The gospel reading is the narrative of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus responds to her situation in a way different than His enemies expected, in a new way, i.e., with forgiveness rather than condemnation. But that doesn’t mark the end of the encounter. He does not condemn her, but He also insists that she go and not sin any more.
The second reading for this Sunday relates to both other readings. It describes the new relationship that God has given us in Christ, but also makes clear that there is more to our encounter with the Lord than just accepting what He offers.
The reading is from the third chapter of Philippians that we heard from three weeks ago. This chapter is a passage of vigorous warning to the Philippians to beware of false teachers who wanted to involve them in the observance of Jewish law. Just before our passage begins, Paul has been telling them that, although he had enjoyed many advantages in the context of Judaism, none of it was of any advantage in comparison with having Christ.
As our reading begins, Paul enlarges his frame of reference. It’s not just Judaism that was of no profit to him. Everything is worthless, everything is loss, everything is rubbish compared with knowing Christ, i.e., experiencing, absorbing, being permeated by Him. This relationship with Christ is not something that Paul claims to have achieved by his observance of the old laws. It consists, rather, in sharing the holiness (righteousness) of God through God’s gift in faith. This faith and knowledge of Christ are aimed at being in touch with Christ, with His death and resurrection in the hope that he, Paul, will eventually share definitively in that resurrection.
But it’s not over yet, he says. Paul acknowledges that he has not taken over Christ but has been taken over by Him, but that doesn’t mean that he has attained full maturity. There is still something else to be gained. Having abandoned his Jewish past, he continues his present efforts ("my pursuit") and strains forward in faith toward the goal of receiving the fulfillment that God has promised in Christ Jesus.
This is an extraordinarily rich reading. It teaches us about the basic elements of Christian life.
Our faith gives us a whole new level of living. Through no merit of our own, we are grafted into the life of the risen Christ. Everything in the world is of secondary importance, or even detrimental to us, apart from this basic relationship with the Lord.
But having begun to live in Christ does not mean that we will necessarily reach full participation in His life in heaven. This newness of life demands some effort on our part. It demands an ongoing struggle to assimilate the life of Christ into our life, to bring ourselves into ever greater conformity with Him and with His faithfulness to the Father even though that faithfulness involved the cross. This newness of life demands our dedication to a clear set of priorities, to an awareness that some things are more important than others, that some things which might seem attractive to us are really "rubbish," while others that might seem unappealing and demanding can lead us into a more mature relationship with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
All this is not without effort. Making choices is not necessarily easy or fun, because every time we choose one thing, we implicitly reject others. And sometimes we wonder whether the choices we have made were the right ones. Yet we must "strain forward" in our "pursuit" just as Paul did.
In addition to giving us a miniature view of all Christian life, this reading also touches the basic themes of the lenten season that is now moving toward its close. It invites us to participation in the death of Jesus in view of a participation in His resurrection. It speaks to us of the new life of faith that we have received from God and that our catechumens will enter at the Easter vigil. It calls us to ongoing change of heart, to continuous repentance in response to what we have already received and in anticipation of what is still promised to us.
Today God’s word reminds us Christians who we are and what we must still become, where we are and where we are going. It also reminds us that we are not there yet.
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Conversation Questions
Is there any "rubbish" in my life?
What’s most important to me now? To what do I look forward?
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