We are almost to Holy Week! I will post the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent and for the Scrutinity on the 5th Sunday of Lent:
GospelJN 8:1-11
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord! Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!
We are like the woman caught in adultery, sinners in need of the forgiveness of Jesus. Many times we feel judged by others. We need to remember when we sin we need to met Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Sometimes we are like the people ready to stone the woman caught in adultery. We are ready to judge and condemn, forgetting that we too are sinners in need of the Mercy of Jesus. We forget that Jesus came to save all of us sinners.
OrJN 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33B-45
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples, +Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord! Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!
Wow, to have seen someone rise from the dead, and it is not a scary movie!!! We believe that we will rise again on the last day as promised in scripture. We see Martha and Mary interceding with the Lord on the behalf of Lazarus. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life!
Many times we are like the people in the 5th Sunday of Lent Gospel, dead in sin and yet walking around, some realizing that they need to be raised and others don’t even notice that they are dead in sin.
Every time we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation we who are dead in our own sin are raised to new life! But wait, before Reconciliation, there is Baptism. The 1st Sacrament that many who are in the scrutinies, preparing to come into the church on Holy Saturday, will receive! Baptism the Sacrament that washes away original sin and for adults our own sins and makes us children of the Father able to accept that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and we who believe in Him have access to life eternal! Hence, the gift of Reconciliation due to the effects of Original Sin, we need to be raised up again and again!
Enjoy the 5th week of Lent!