FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Sunday April 3, 2022

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

1. Throw No Stones
3. Look First Into Your Own Heart
4. 

Greeting (See Second Reading)

With St. Paul we say today:
”I forget the past
and I strain ahead for what is still to come,
for the prize to which God calls us.”
May the strength of the Lord Jesus
be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

1. Throw No Stones

Have you ever had the experience of hurting someone very much but that the offended person forgave you, perhaps with difficulty, and accepted your apology, and that was the end? Do you remember how relieved you felt, as if you were a new person? That is how God keeps forgiving us: he makes us new every time again. Do we live as forgiven, new people? Do we make others new by our pardon? Let us encounter again in this eucharist our patient, forgiving Lord Jesus.

2. Look First into Your Own Heart

When they have sinned, especially when grievously, some people are afraid that God is out to catch them, like a policeman who has to implement the law. Today we learn from Jesus that God goes beyond the law, for he forgives and keeps forgiving. This is the attitude we learn from God. Look into your own heart and see that you need forgiveness. And repeatedly so. Then you will also easily forgive others. Let us ask Jesus for this attitude, even when we still feel the hurt inflicted.

Penitential Act

During this Lent we have looked into ourselves
and, hopefully, realized that we are sinners
in constant need of forgiveness.
Let us seek the Lord’s pardon.
                        (pause)
Lord Jesus, you throw no stones at us
and you don’t want us to throw them at anyone:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you do not condemn us
for you have come to save what was lost
and you want us to be free and alive:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you tell us to go
and to sin no more:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
forgive us and make us new.
Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us ask our Father
that we may imitate his mercy
                        (pause)
God of life,
this is the Good News you let us hear today
through your living image, Jesus Christ:
Love is stronger than death,
you want the sinner to live
and to become all new.
Let us no longer live in the past of sin
but make us free for life and for love.
Give us hearts as merciful to one another
as you have been lenient and loving to us.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading (Is 43:16-21): Forget the Past; Go Forward with Me

To his chosen people suffering in exile, God says: I have done great deeds of salvation for you in the past. I will do greater things for you in the future.

Reading 1: Is 43:16-21

Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.

(3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Second Reading (Phil 3:8-14): Push On to What Is Ahead

Once Paul had been “seized” by Christ, the past no longer counted, and he strained toward his future in Christ, by the strength of the risen Lord.

Reading 2: Phil 3:8-14

Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind
but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal,
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

Verse Before the Gospel: Jl 2:12-13

Even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.

Gospel (Jn 8:1-11): Go Away and Don’t Sin Any More

The mission of Jesus is not to judge and condemn but to forgive and to give new chances in life. Isn’t that our mission too?

Gospel: Jn 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Intercessions

In his love, God wants to make the world ever new. Let us entrust to his mercy our intentions and those of our brothers and sisters. Let us say: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For the Church we love, that it may be in our world a place and a sign of forgiveness and reconciliation, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For those who condemn and for those who are condemned, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For broken homes and for families that are united, let us pray : R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For those wounded by the hardships of life and for those who keep hoping, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For those in authority, that they pay attention to the people’s needs and not crush anyone with their power, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

–          For our Christian communities, that we keep accepting everyone with understanding and compassion, let us pray: R/ Lord of life, in you we trust.

Lord our God, we thank you for listening to us and for showing us your patient mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord God, merciful Father
in these signs of bread and wine
we share in the forgiveness and life
of your Son Jesus Christ.
By his body and blood
make us, limited and fallible people,
your new creation, your people of hope,
capable of rising above ourselves
and preparing your new heaven and new earth.
For we expect everything from you
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

Through Jesus our Lord we thank our Father for forgetting our past and leading us to a future of love and justice and freedom.

Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer

In the words of Jesus our Lord
we call on our Father in heaven
to forgive us as we forgive others: R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord, from a past of evil,
from everything that estranges us
from you and one another.
Gather us in the solidarity and peace
of one faith, one hope, one love,
as people set free by your Son.
May we spread your reconciliation
to build up a liberated world
and to wait in hope for the coming in glory
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion

This is the Lamb of God
who does not condemn us
but makes with us
an ever-new beginning.
Happy are we to be invited
to hear his words of forgiveness
and to eat his bread of life. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion

Tender and compassionate Father,
we thank you for letting us share
in the sacrifice of your Son
that brought us your pardon and peace.
Let him give to us, pardoned sinners,
the strength to remain faithful to you.
Let us be disciples demanding to ourselves
and very merciful to others.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing

We have heard today our Lord’s invitation
not to shut ourselves up
in the mediocrity of our past
but to set out boldly for the future
with fresh generosity.
This future will not be without difficulties:
the Lord never promises an easy life.

But he promises to be with us
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go in the joy and the strength of the Lord.

R/ Thanks be to God.

Commentary 

Remembering to Forget

Read:

Yahweh invites His people to let go of the past and look forward in hope. Paul speaks of what makes him let go and press forward: Christ. Jesus releases the woman caught in adultery into the freedom of a child of God.

Reflect:

To let go of something, one must possess it first. To forget, one must remember first. Jesus lets the woman go from her burdensome past into the liberating freedom to live her life differently. He does so, precisely because her entire life has been so darkened by her humiliating past, a memory forced on her by society, giving her no freedom to break free. Jesus gives her a future. However, the crowd who brought her had no consciousness of their sinful past. Hence, Jesus gently nudges them to remember their own stories. He doesn’t do so to chain them to their past, but to make them realize their kinship with the woman, own up their past, and then let it go, embracing the freedom he was offering them as well.

Pray:

Place your hurting memories at the feet of the Lord and pray for healing.

Act:

Identify a person whom you have chained with unforgiveness. Today, free that person (and yourself) from the burdening past. 

Reflection taken from Bible Diary 2022;

written by Fr.Paulson Velyannoor, CMF

Coffee With God : “I do not condemn you” neither today nor tomorrow nor ever!