Sunday Readings

Fifth Sunday of Lent April 6, 2025 Readings: Isaiah 43.16-21; Philippians 3.8-14; John 8.1-11 Contemplative life cannot exist unless our memory is infused with the supernatural virtue of hope. Hope resides, for the most part, in our memory which is our knowledge bank. In the middle of the experience held in the memory, hope enables us to be open to that which is beyond all experience. Hope offers an expectancy which is beyond the limits of our experience. Christian hope is a night to our memory, but hope is also a light that glows from faith and leads to love. St. John of the Cross writes that faith and hope are two wings for love which bears us into God. In the First Reading from Isaiah the Lord God clearly teaches that hope empowers memory to go beyond itself: 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? The Reading is telling God’s people that the exodus was a marvelous miracle of liberation. Now the prophet is saying that there is something beyond even the exodus of God’s people. The newness that is to come is the formation of a new people redeemed by God, beyond the national confines of Israel, a fuller and universal sign of the redemption of the whole human family: The people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise. What is beyond Israel's common experience of the liberation? All humanity must be the recipients of this newer, more profound liberation. Christ Jesus conquers death, humanity’s great enemy. The Resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection in Him are the realities of faith and the power of our hope. We all have witnessed the wrenching pain of death and the vast violence inflicted upon individuals and groups. We have not witnessed their resurrection in Christ. We have not witnessed with our eyes this resurrection and therefore, our memories do not contain that invisible reality. Faith brings the Mystery to our understanding; hope anchors us in the certainty of resurrection for us as it has been the culminating reality of Jesus. Faith brings an understanding beyond the power of reason; hope brings an experience of that which is beyond memory experience; divine love infused in the soul makes it all a reality and a living knowledge. It is a flame that burns within the contemplative heart. Love cannot burn if there is not the oxygen of hope. The Second Reading brings us further into the qualities of the virtue of hope as the substance of our contemplative life. Contemplative hope is based on the experience of Christ: Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. The Gospel Reading brings us away from theological concepts to look at individuals who are caught up in the turmoil of religious conscience and capital punishment. A woman who has been caught in the act of adultery lies condemned at the feet of Jesus. Where is her hope? Is her heart a barren waste devoid of the sense of God? And what goes on in the hearts of the religious people who wish to stone her as a means of catching and thus of diminishing His popularity? They live in the shrunken confines of religious formulas. She lives in the shackles of her sin. Jesus liberates her and offers liberation to the religious persons gathered around her. Jesus gives her the hope of a new life. Her new life is founded on the grace of Jesus along with her resolution to cooperate with grace. She needs the power to sin no more. Jesus DOES NOT SAY: This is not a sin; it’s only you self-expression. Jesus brings liberation through grace and also through a moral code that reflects the nature He created as the Word with the Father. Do what is natural which is obedience to the will of God even to the point of dying to self. What was lacking in the religious people who were antagonistic to Jesus was their lack of the sense of hope. They had a sense of moral obligation. That is part of it. Jesus is not taking away the commandments that flow from our very nature as creatures of God. Jesus is giving hope to us as fallen creatures, prone to selfishness. Jesus offers the hope of forgiveness, the hope of a new life in His Spirit. True religion requires hope; we must always go beyond what we experience in our religious life. The treasures of God’s possibilities are never exhausted. Even in sin, weakness and death, God brings the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of change is founded on Christ’s grace and on the power of hope. I hope in the resurrection of Christ to bring me all that I need to conquer my sin and my addiction to my own selfishness. The Lenten liturgy has patiently brought us along to this Sunday of hope and forgiveness. We are like the woman caught in adultery. We are all caught in the adultery of our infidelity to God and His law written into our natures. More deeply, by our sins we are unfaithful in our fleeing from the presence of the Holy Spirit within our soul. The contemplative practice is to remain peaceful and forgiven at the feet of Jesus. It also requires more. The fruit of deep consciousness of that union with Christ must bring us into loving relationship with others. We must bear the burdens of one another; wash one another’s feet. It is in the Eucharist that we are principally caught up into this Mystery, our oneness with Christ. + + --William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

April 6, 2025

Readings: Isaiah 43.16-21; Philippians 3.8-14; John 8.1-11

Contemplative life cannot exist unless our memory is infused with the supernatural virtue of hope. Hope resides, for the most part, in our memory which is our knowledge bank. In the middle of the experience held in the memory, hope enables us to be open to that which is beyond all experience. Hope offers an expectancy which is beyond the limits of our experience. Christian hope is a night to our memory, but hope is also a light that glows from faith and leads to love. St. John of the Cross writes that faith and hope are two wings for love which bears us into God.

In the First Reading from Isaiah the Lord God clearly teaches that hope empowers memory to go beyond itself: 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?

The Reading is telling God’s people that the exodus was a marvelous miracle of liberation. Now the prophet is saying that there is something beyond even the exodus of God’s people. The newness that is to come is the formation of a new people redeemed by God, beyond the national confines of Israel, a fuller and universal sign of the redemption of the whole human family: The people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.

What is beyond Israel's common experience of the liberation? All humanity must be the recipients of this newer, more profound liberation. Christ Jesus conquers death, humanity’s great enemy. The Resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection in Him are the realities of faith and the power of our hope.

We all have witnessed the wrenching pain of death and the vast violence inflicted upon individuals and groups. We have not witnessed their resurrection in Christ. We have not witnessed with our eyes this resurrection and therefore, our memories do not contain that invisible reality. Faith brings the Mystery to our understanding; hope anchors us in the certainty of resurrection for us as it has been the culminating reality of Jesus. Faith brings an understanding beyond the power of reason; hope brings an experience of that which is beyond memory experience; divine love infused in the soul makes it all a reality and a living knowledge. It is a flame that burns within the contemplative heart. Love cannot burn if there is not the oxygen of hope.

The Second Reading brings us further into the qualities of the virtue of hope as the substance of our contemplative life. Contemplative hope is based on the experience of Christ:

Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which through faith in
Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The Gospel Reading brings us away from theological concepts to look at individuals who are caught up in the turmoil of religious conscience and capital punishment. A woman who has been caught in the act of adultery lies condemned at the feet of Jesus. Where is her hope? Is her heart a barren waste devoid of the sense of God? And what goes on in the hearts of the religious people who wish to stone her as a means of catching and thus of diminishing His popularity? They live in the shrunken confines of religious formulas. She lives in the shackles of her sin.

Jesus liberates her and offers liberation to the religious persons gathered around her. Jesus gives her the hope of a new life. Her new life is founded on the grace of Jesus along with her resolution to cooperate with grace. She needs the power to sin no more. Jesus DOES NOT SAY: This is not a sin; it’s only you self-expression. Jesus brings liberation through grace and also through a moral code that reflects the nature He created as the Word with the Father. Do what is natural which is obedience to the will of God even to the point of dying to self.

What was lacking in the religious people who were antagonistic to Jesus was their lack of the sense of hope. They had a sense of moral obligation. That is part of it. Jesus is not taking away the commandments that flow from our very nature as creatures of God. Jesus is giving hope to us as fallen creatures, prone to selfishness. Jesus offers the hope of forgiveness, the hope of a new life in His Spirit. True religion requires hope; we must always go beyond what we experience in our religious life. The treasures of God’s possibilities are never exhausted. Even in sin, weakness and death, God brings the power of Christ’s resurrection.

The power of change is founded on Christ’s grace and on the power of hope. I hope in the resurrection of Christ to bring me all that I need to conquer my sin and my addiction to my own selfishness.

The Lenten liturgy has patiently brought us along to this Sunday of hope and forgiveness. We are like the woman caught in adultery. We are all caught in the adultery of our infidelity to God and His law written into our natures. More deeply, by our sins we are unfaithful in our fleeing from the presence of the Holy Spirit within our soul.

The contemplative practice is to remain peaceful and forgiven at the feet of Jesus.
It also requires more. The fruit of deep consciousness of that union with Christ must bring us into loving relationship with others. We must bear the burdens of one another; wash one another’s feet. It is in the Eucharist that we are principally caught up into this Mystery, our oneness with Christ.

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--William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.

+ + --William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.

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--William Fredrickson, OblS, OSB; D.Min.