5th Sunday of Lent Homily

There is no denying it. Spring is finally on its way. The daffodils, crocus, and snowdrops are blooming. While it was a gloomy week with showers, the temperatures were on the rise. This week, the landscaping contractor came and did the spring clean-up. They cut away last year’s dead growth, cleaned the sand from the winter storms out of the parking lot, and laid down a new layer of mulch around the property. Everything looks good, and we’re on target to be our best for Easter and a new growing season. 

Today, we complete our Lenten series of homilies called “In with the New.” Lent is our church season of renewal. It is our time of preparation for Easter when we look at our spiritual lives to clean out our old sinfulness and prepare to invite new life. Lent, we’ve told you, comes from an Old English name for spring. Spring is the season of new life, so Lent is its appropriate title. 

During our series, we have seen how temptation is quick to come when we resolve to change our lives. The evil one despises change and will attack us when we try, but if we act quickly and decisively, we can thwart temptation. This Lent, we learned of a loving God who grants us grace and initiates a relationship with us, a God who wants to renew that relationship whenever needed. 

God’s yearning for a renewed and deeper relationship with us is our theme again today. God wants us to realize that even if we believe we have a good relationship with God, “We ain’t seen nothing yet!” The Jewish people were a people of memory. They recalled God’s relationship by celebrating the Passover according to Moses’ instruction. It helped them recall God’s deliverance of them from slavery. They remember how God separated the Red Sea so they could pass through it and then rolled it back to drown and destroy their enemies. God led them through the desert and to the Promised Land of their ancestors. The Jews remember their unique relationship with God and God’s past goodness to them. 

Our reading from the Book of Isaiah tells them even better things are around the corner. As Isaiah prepares the people to leave their exile in Babylon, he encourages them by telling them God has great plans for their future. God’s mighty deeds of the past will pale when compared with God’s activity in the future. God will be with them as they head home to rebuild Jerusalem, the Temple, and their relationship with the Promised Land. Great things are in store for them, and they will experience the opportunity for an even greater relationship with God.

As Christians, we take that promise of great things to happen in the future as foretelling the coming of the Messiah. The ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, overshadowed the Exodus, wandering in the desert, the reign of the glorious King David, and everything else the people celebrated and remembered. We believe God will offer the faithful the Resurrection of the Dead and a new life.

This promise of new life will come with the need for sacrifice. It has a cost. Paul reassures the Philippians that while it is a great price, it is worth paying. It is so valuable Paul boldly claims everything else in life is dung or the “s” word when compared to the value of a relationship with Jesus. 

Paul tells us he sacrificed a great deal for his relationship with Jesus. Before becoming Jesus’ apostle, he lived a life of great advantages. He was a Roman citizen; as such, he had the right to vote, own property, a fair trial, and freedom from torture. Paul had a superior education. He came to Jerusalem, studied under a renowned Rabbi, and became that Rabbi’s star pupil. Paul wrote he was a Pharisee and held a top rank in that prestigious group. 

Paul had many advantages, but he gave them up to follow Jesus and to preach and evangelize in Jesus’ name. His faithfulness to Jesus caused Paul suffering. His old friends and fellow Pharisees would ostracise him. Some fellow Christians would criticize him for welcoming the Gentiles without requiring them to be circumcised or to follow the Law of Moses. Paul would face shipwrecks, beatings, and other punishments, imprisonment, and finally surrendering his life as a martyr. Paul unquestioningly considered it worth a relationship with Jesus and the joy of a future life with Christ in Heaven. 

Jesus offers the woman caught in adultery a new life. Jesus doesn’t only save her from execution by the crowd but offers her eternal life through a relationship with him. He refuses to focus on her past but offers her a new beginning. Jesus bestows on her supernatural assistance called grace to support her decision to live rightly. Jesus proposes to her forgiveness, which comes with a cost. She must give up sin. 

Did the woman accept Jesus’ offer? What did she decide to do? Did she appreciate this incredible offer to start afresh? Did she take the call to become a new creation or sink back into her old ways? The gospel doesn’t tell us. Jesus didn’t force a relationship on her. He recognizes she had the free will to accept or reject God’s mercy. Her life was in her hands.   

As we approach Easter, our lives are in our hands. There is still time to transform them this season. We can do that through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This sacrament of spiritual healing calls us to new and transformed lives. While our sin might not be adultery, maybe it is. Maybe our sins are venial in nature but weigh us down and prevent us from experiencing new life. Please don’t be shy because it has been a long time since your last confession, years, even decades. There is no wrong way to make a confession. The priest confessor is there to welcome, help, and guide you. He wants to enable you to experience a new life. 

This Lent, I’ve made myself more available in the Reconciliation Room at the back of the church. In addition to regular Saturday afternoons from 3-3:45 p.m., I’m available this Tuesday from 3: 30-4:30 p.m. I’ll have additional opportunities during Holy Week, but don’t wait until the last minute. 

Are we willing to sacrifice for a new and refreshed relationship with God? Ask God to open you to the newness of life. At the Easter Masses, that opportunity will be offered to us when we are invited to affirm our Baptismal promises. Prepare yourself to renew your life of grace with a real commitment. 

This Easter, invite others to come and hear how Jesus wants to summon them to new life. Again today, we have invitations to our Easter Mass; take a few to share with people you know who don’t attend church regularly. They are members of your family, your friends, and your neighbors. Surveys find up to 60% of unchurched people are open to an invitation to church on Easter. They are just looking for someone to ask them to come. There is a good chance whoever you invite will come. Don’t try to twist arms. Recognize that your invitation might plant the seed that will encourage a person to reconnect at a later date.

We want to be an exceptionally welcoming parish on Easter, so we need you to help. We need you to sign up to be a parking lot attendant, helping fill our lot, greeters, smiling and holding open the church doors, and welcomers guiding parishioners to a seat in a full church. Sign-up sheets are available at the welcome desks, so don’t be shy. It is lots of fun.

There is another sign-up sheet there too. It is to have your feet washed as part of the Mandatuum of the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper. That’s fun, too. Signing up will save me from having to call you to ask.

New life is coming in a couple of weeks. It will be like nothing you have seen. Will you let it transform you?