1st Reading Isaiah 43: 16-21
Psalm 126: 1-2ab. 2cd-3. 4-5. 6 (R. 3)
R:// "What great deeds the Lord worked for us! Indeed, we were glad"
2nd Reading Philippians 3: 8-14
Gospel John 8: 1-11
OUR GOD DOES NOT CHANGE
Beloved, we thank God for bringing us into a new month, April. This is the fourth month of the year, and everything regarding the number four has a lot to do with the earth (the earth has four cardinal points; East, West, North, and South). At best, we should begin to see ourselves as pilgrims, especially Pilgrims of Hope, even as we celebrate the 2025 Jubilee. Again, in the Catholic Church, the month of April is traditionally the month of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Spirit. This becomes so interesting for us because in this same month, we shall have the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood on the evening of Holy Thursday. Perhaps this month should be a call on us to have a Eucharistic spirituality. Additionally, today is the 5th Sunday of Lent. What it means is that Holy Week is in view, and we should be bracing ourselves up for this "Week of weeks" in the Church's year.
Let's focus on a couple of details from the Word of God for this Sunday. We have the Gospel passage from John 8:1-11. Already from Monday, we started reading the Gospel according to John, as if the Church was introducing us to a Johanine thought pattern, especially events unfolding and leading up to the cross. Today, we have in view the story of the woman caught in adultery. To commit adultery is a very serious crime. It reflects infidelity not only to one's partner but it is a deceit of God's holiness and a turn away from God. There is actually an injunction and a penalty attached to adultery in Leviticus 20:10-20 and Deuteronomy 22: 22-29. The penalty is stoning to death. This is also a legal issue. However, the penalty is to be metted out to both the man and the woman caught in adultery. Here in the passage, the Scribes and Pharisees bring only the woman. That begs the question, "Where is the man?". We should reflect on this attitude more. At any rate, their intention was to "test Jesus that they might have some charge to bring against him" (Jn. 8: 6a).
I wish we closely look at the first reading from Isaiah 43:16-21. We are reading from the second division of the book of Isaiah, called Deutero-Isaiah or Second Isaiah (chaps. 40-55). This section is to give the exiles in Babylon consolation and hope of redemption.
The passage we have today has very powerful and intriguing images. The images giving hope of redemption reminisces the redemption from Egyptian captivity. We could easily see that a new form of slavery has caught up the Israelites, necessitating a renewed form of salvation.
The first thing that the author of Second Isaiah does in the first reading is to describe the Lord as the one "who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick" (Isa. 43: 16-17). This is a very powerful image, and it is the language of Exodus 14, the crossing of the Red Sea. At that event, it was God who made a way in the sea, and the Israelites passed through the sea, walking on dry land. In fact, it recalls the divine defeat of Pharaoh's forces. The chariots and horses of Pharoah's forces were hurled into the sea, and they could not come out. They perished.
The Sea (Yam, ים) is not simply a large mass of water. It is associated with violence and chaos, considering it's sometimes dangerous waves. It is in this chaos, this dangerous creature that God made a way; not just a way but a dry land. The Hebrew word for Way is "Derek" (דּרך). It originally referred to a "trodden path" or a "beaten truck," often implying a dry or worn path. For a dry path to be made in a chaotic element of creation, the monstrous Sea, meant that God did a wonder that Israel would and should never forget.
The author tells his audience, those in exile, not to remember this wonderful phenomenon. Why? The Lord will do something new and more marvellous than that. They were captives in Egypt, and the Lord redeemed them. They are captives in Babylon, and God will fashion a new saving help for them. The prophet creates an imaginative space so that the people are not locked up in the events of the past, but while beholding the wonderment of the past, they could focus on the present and the future. The ability to look to the past is necessary to drive us on a path of hope that God can do today and in the future what he did in the past.
What new thing is the Lord going to do in this Babylonian captivity? The author uses the same two elements of land and water and reverses them. Within this grand reversal lies the newness. The new thing is that, "[The Lord] will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isa. 43: 19b). There is the creation of another way. It is not just a wilderness (midbar) but a waterless desert (yeshiman). This time, water will flood the desert, and life will spring forth thereof. In the first wonder, it is dry land that is made in the sea (water). In the new wonder, it is water that is brought unto the dry land. The dry land in this context is the desert, and ostriches and jackals are associated with such wild places. These animals will honour God for such a wonder.
What the author deems to tell the exiles who long for liberation and redemption and to us today is that the character of our God has not changed. The God who did the unimaginable and unthinkable; the God who delivered from captivity is the same God today. If he did it yesterday, He will all the more in new and marvellous ways do it today today and save us. God does not change. He is the same. He only moves us into wonders with new ways of redeeming us. Indeed, great things He has done and greater things he will do.
As we gradually move towards Holy Week, let us hold on to the promise that our God does not change. If he did it in the past, we should hope that he will do it again. He will always create new paths to save us. As Pilgrims of Hope, let us continue to walk in faith, knowing that God's redemption will guide us through the challenges of our own lives.
Pax et Bonum
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