Introduction All spiritual disciplines have one purpose: to get rid of illusions so we can be present. These disciplines exist so that we can see what is, see all that is, see who we are, and see what is really happening right now. During this time of lent we are invited to experience God who showers us with the grace of the present. It is a grace which when accepted liberates us from the tyranny of our individual and collective past. God’s justice is on a now basis. When God sees the sincerity of our repentant hearts our relationship with Him is restored to what prevailed at our beginning, at the time of our conception in His loving heart. As some people say our original image in God is restored.
Entrance Antiphon Give me justice, O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge.
The First Proclamation 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.
Prayerful Awareness Let us read the following reflectively: “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?” Isaiah presents the Lord as one who IS ACTING rather than one who acted. The Lord Jesus who as true man digested the image of God presented by the prophets is not satisfied with just knowing who God is in the head, but takes steps out to experience God in real life. Let us read the Gospel proclamation to observe how He does it.
The Gospel Proclamation 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.”
Gaze at Jesus The Lord Jesus after communing with God His Abba on the Mount of Olives arrives to be with the people. He is confronted with a concrete situation challenging Him to put into effect what He had read in the book of prophets and what he absorbed during His time of prayer. Let us gaze at Him and see how He handles the situation. Jesus is not willing to be manipulated into a reaction by the explosive nature of the situation. He wisely gives himself a little time to take stock of the situation facing Him by bending down and scribbling on the ground. Surely He would have listened to what HIS Abba had to say about what He faced. Jesus recalls how Yahweh intervened to vanquish the enemies of His chosen people and then found for them a way in the desert and made a river in the wasteland. Jesus sees the heart of His Abba Father, full of compassionate love for His daughter who has been judged and condemned by yet another set of His sons. His response is totally that of His Father.
The Second Proclamation I even 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, 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.
Our Sonship To answer Jesus’ call “come follow me” we need to listen to Paul who accepted the call. He speaks through his experience and he tells us that there is a need to ‘lose’ not just some things but all things in order to find ourselves in Jesus. All of us understand what losing our possessions mean, but do we know how to ‘lose’ the way we perceive reality, morality and justice? Let us pray that we be given the thirst to yearn for the goal of being found in Jesus Christ so that we begin to see everything through the eyes of Jesus the Lord. That will be true repentance, true turning around, and true conversion. Try to say that: “I don’t know anything.” Maybe we could think of ourselves as an erased blackboard, ready to be written on. It is the assumption that we already know, or that we don’t need to know that blocks developing a thirst for the really real. We have to pray for the grace of beginner’s mind.
Prayer Starter We need to say with the blind man, “I want to see.”
