Scripture Reflections for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

“Yes, we can be confident of this much, that Christ has made us his own, but if we are his own there is work to be done, there is a death to be undergone to all our false securities and self-righteousness”

"In our second reading for this Sunday, St. Paul lays out his resumé. In terms of the Judaism of his time, Paul was about as accomplished as one could hope..."

“God’s mercy toward us challenges us to view those who are made outcasts with mercy in return. The fundamental dignity of those whom society rejects demands that not only their human rights be protected, but that they be treated with utmost respect and care.”

“Jesus shows us, that there is no judgment without mercy. Mercy is not an optional part of justice, rather it is its central part. A judgment which does not consider mercy is not just.”

“If, like the Pharisees at the beginning of our Gospel reading, we too are inclined to be somewhat judgmental in our dealings with others then we probably need to remind ourselves of our own sin and our own need for forgiveness”

“Lent is an invitation for us to grow in this silence in the heart of Jesus. To not rush to condemnation, to not reach for easy answers or to excuse ourselves from responsibility.”

“Through his Cross he teaches us to see the truth about ourselves. He lowers himself so that those who are proud can receive the gift of humility, and he raises the humble so that those who lack a sense of worth can see their true dignity as children of God.”

"Friends, this Sunday, we hear the story of the woman caught in adultery from the eighth chapter of John. René Girard thought that this story was particularly clear in showing..."

“When in humility we acknowledge our sinfulness and our limitations we encounter Jesus and his healing mercy. It is an entering into the mystery of God's transforming love”

"In this week’s Gospel, we hear the story of the woman caught in adultery, a tale that has beguiled Christians and non-Christians for two millennia. The story displays our constant..."

"The New Testament frequently explores the scapegoating violence of the mob, nowhere more insightfully than in the story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus stops the momentum of the..."

“Loving others includes helping them in crisis AND leading them to match God’s standards in their lives”

“Since salvation is by definition an “exodus” or freedom from sin, we cannot be “saved” while we are still “sinning.” Sin is what we are saved from.”

“Jesus draws our path for us, and he meets us where we are, and especially in those depths of despair where we may be losing hope”

“The message of today’s Gospel is clearly about forgiveness but even more so it is about turning the world upside down, about the new creation where we all have the possibility of being freed from our past, from our errors, from our chains, from the reality that we have lived for so long”

“This is one of the most beautiful stories in the bible because of how Christ converted hatred into love, sin into forgiveness. Slavery to guilt, into freedom from sin.”

“Paradoxically the crowd is unknowingly helping God achieve his plan. They place [the] woman along beside Jesus. That is exactly where Jesus wished to be, beside the sinner. They bring her to her saviour.”

“‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ The supreme irony is that he is the one who is truly without sin, but will take the sins of the whole world, past, present and future, on his own back in his passion and death.”

"This week’s scriptures present the hope of moving forward. All of us have sins and vices in our past. Christ offers us the possibility for forgiveness and a bright future..."