GREAT AND NEW THINGS!
5th Sunday of Lent Year C
March 17, 2013
GREAT AND NEW THINGS!
All three readings today may be said to speak about newness.
The first talks about new realities for the chosen people of God: a way in the
desert and rivers in the wasteland, to name two. The second reading speaks
about the need “to forget what lies behind but strain forward to what lies
ahead.” The third refers to a new approach the Lord used to tame the old
problem of people taking advantage of others to push their own agenda.
As a counselor, I am familiar with the tendency to wallow
and dwell in the past. When one is hurting, one always remembers selectively, I
must add, all the unfortunate and unhappy incidents in the past. One finds it
hard to look ahead. One loses, not just serenity and peace, but also, and more
importantly, the capacity to hope for better things in future. According to the
research of Philip Zimbardo, there are people who are focused on the past:
either the past positive or the past negative.
That focus spells all the difference between one who
fossilized in the past and focused on what lies ahead, as Paul was.
I am sure we all had our own experiences with this tendency
to pine for things past, and to long for things that will never come back
anymore. Maybe it is a defense of some kind – that helps some of us to deal
with the basically unacceptable present, or the uncertain future.
I know. I have “been there; done that.” Is it any surprise
that my thirst for music is, as they call, retro? Should it surprise anyone
that most people that we work with and for, often compare us with the so-called
“good old days” during the time of so and so … and we are left with the bitter
feeling that we are not as good, not as capable, and not as avant-garde as the
former pastor or former principal?
Counselors are familiar with the defense strategy called
“idealization,” and it always works when it comes to glorifying the past – or
so people think.
The Lord was caught in a veritable trap. They dragged a
specimen with them – a woman caught in adultery. That was a real trap if ever
there was one, for the law was very clear on what to do with such women. But
they were not so much interested in bringing the woman to justice, as catching
the Lord in flagrante delictu, as it
were – with his fingers in the cookie jar!
But salvation has to do with new and great things! Salvation
is all about God doing great things for us. And the Lord, who knew and read
their minds and hearts, saw through the ruse and answered them in a way that
could not have been predicted by the people of the lie!
Great things and new things have been done by the Lord in
our recent history. The Pope emeritus Benedict XVI surprised the world with
something new, something novel and unexpected. He announced his renunciation of
the Petrine office last February 11, 2013. The world, that is deeply steeped in
the old ways of sin, selfishness, and power, position, privilege and wealth
could not understand it. The world cannot understand humility, self-denial, and
self-abnegation, especially in our context where politicians rule the roost for
decades, forever, through their wives, sons, daughters and clan members!
We need to try new tacks. We need to open up to newness and
new approaches. And the election of a new Pope that also surprised the world
and the many pundits who thought they had all the goods on the new Holy Father,
was a big case in point. Newness means being open to surprise, to serendipity,
to hope, and the promise of change, but not the change expected by pundits and
mainstream media, who always seem to know what the Church needs!
I don’t know what the Lord wrote down on the ground when he
bent down. It could be anything. It
could be that he was biding time and reflecting on what to do. But what he said
was the totally shocking new thing that made the accusers walk away one by one,
tails between their legs.
It is an old reality, but something that we need to renew
and reflect on with eternal newness and validity: “Let the one among you who is
without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
An old condition? Yes, definitely. For we all fell short of
God’s glory and were all born with original sin? New reality? Yes, for the
Church is ever young and ever new when we walk away from the old in order to
strain forward to what lies ahead.
And what is our prize? Let St. Paul speak for himself … “the
prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”
This is the same prize that Augustine spoke of – the beauty
ever ancient; ever new!
Lord, bless and guide the new Holy Father, Francis! May he lead
us toward that great prize of newness and salvation!
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