Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11

In the readings for this Sunday there is a theme of new beginnings brought about by God after times of sin and suffering. In the first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, God tells His people, "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." This passage comes from Isaiah 43, which is near the beginning of the second of the two major parts of Isaiah. Up until the fortieth chapter Isaiah is a relatively dark book, dealing primarily with the sins of Israel and their punishments, and with the suffering and exile of the nation in the Babylonian Captivity. The second section of Isaiah, beginning in the fortieth chapter, offers a message of hope and good news of deliverance from exile through God's saving love. Historically some of the prophecies in the second part of Isaiah can be understood as applying to the deliverance of Israel from exile in the Babylonian Captivity, but much of this section has also always been understood as applying above all to the coming of Jesus, who of course ultimately saves Israel from the exile of sin. In particular the famous "Suffering Servant" prophecies in Isaiah, describing one who suffers and dies for the sins of the people, clearly reach their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

Given this context in the prophecies of Isaiah, it is very appropriate that this first reading is given near the end of Lent, on the last Sunday before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. The original events of Holy Week and Easter were in a sense the culmination of the Incarnation event, with Jesus suffering and dying to save Israel and the whole world from the captivity of sin. If we listen to this reading as if we were hearing it before the original events of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we should perceive that at this moment above all other moments in history, God is "doing something new" for humanity, as the first reading says. Indeed He is setting out to "make all things new," in the words of Revelation 21:5.

The second reading continues this theme of new beginning by mentioning the importance of, in a certain sense, leaving the past behind and looking toward the future in our relationship with God. At the end of this reading, Paul writes about his own focus on "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." Forgetting what lies behind clearly does not mean forgetting or rejecting all of our past. Obviously that is impossible, and would not be good in any case. For each of us, our past makes up who we are in an important way, and flows into our present and future. However, it is important to realize that our personal relationship with God is, in a way, always new. Paul himself is a good example of what is meant by this. In his Letter to the Philippians, directly before what is given in the second reading, Paul writes about his own past, when he was, or thought he was at the time, a zealous and righteous Jew. This meant both that he persecuted the Christians and that he faithfully adhered to the old Law, but as he writes this letter Paul essentially affirms that neither of these things matter anymore. Although he lived according to the old Law, he recognizes that such purely human righteousness is useless to him without the power of Jesus Christ, so there is no cause for complacency or self-satisfaction in it. At the same time, his persecution of the Christians of course was very wrong, but he is not distracted by that from his current path to Jesus Christ.

What allows us to leave the sins of our past behind is the forgiveness of sins, and that is what we see in the Gospel today, in the story of the woman caught in adultery who is forgiven and saved from punishment by Jesus. This is really what the coming of Jesus is all about in the end: forgiveness of and salvation from sins. It is inevitable that people will sin, and without Jesus everyone would be destined to remain mired in their own sins. From Jesus we can receive forgiveness and salvation, and He offers it to us freely and repeatedly for all our sins. The new beginning that Jesus brought to humanity in His death and resurrection is given to us constantly in life if we are willing to receive it. God is always ready to give us this unimaginably precious gift: the gift of beginning anew.

This Gospel also tells us two other important parts of this constant renewal that should take place in our lives. First, not only can we leave our own sins behind, but also we should leave the sins of others behind. The scribes and Pharisees in this story want to focus all their attention on the sin of this one woman. They put up a facade of respect for the Law, but in fact they do not care about justice. They do not even treat this woman as a human being. Both justice and this woman are merely tools for them in an attempt to trap Jesus. While we may not do anything exactly like that, most of us probably tend to focus a lot of our thoughts and internal attention on the sins of others, specifically on their offenses against us, and most likely our true concern is rarely for justice or for the other person. As he wipes away our own sins, Jesus asks us also to leave behind our anger and resentment over the offenses done to us by others. Even if people have really done us wrong, dwelling on that, like our own sins, can only interfere with experiencing the joy and renewal offered to us by Jesus.

The last part of renewal that we hear about in this Gospel is the actual conversion of life. Jesus tells the woman in the Gospel, "Go, and from now on do not sin any more." God forgives our sins if we are truly repentant, and true repentance necessarily involves the intention to do better in the future. We not only need to "forget" our sins, in the sense of not dwelling on them rather than on our present relationship with God, but also we need to leave behind our sins in the real actions of our life. Now, it is highly unlikely that many people will literally stop sinning in this life anytime soon. God is well aware of this, and thus we have the Sacrament of Confession, which is instituted to give us this opportunity for renewal through repentance after we sin, and unfortunately usually sin again ... and again ... and yet again. However, we cannot honestly claim that we have repented of our sins if we do not make a sincere effort to change our lives to conform more perfectly to the will of God. The fact that we often fail should not discourage us, but rather motivate us to greater efforts towards conversion and truly beginning anew, because God reads our hearts, and will know and judge not merely our results, but our efforts. G.K. Chesterton once wrote in a story, referring to a particular group of sinners, "only God knows how good they have tried to be," and that applies to all those who really struggle and try to follow Jesus.

The responsorial psalm sometimes get overlooked among the readings, which is unfortunate, as is any lack of adequate attention to the psalms, which are in a special way the Scriptural prayers of the Church. The responsorial psalm for this Sunday is a beautiful one that fits in perfectly with the readings, for it also carries the theme of freedom and rejoicing after times of captivity and mourning. In fact, the psalm focuses entirely on this theme throughout, beginning with, "When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion, we were like men dreaming," and continuing throughout the psalm to the end: "Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, they shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves." Once again, this joy after sorrow can be brought about only through the goodness of God. Originally, in the Old Testament, this prayer referred to an earthly captivity and earthly deliverance, but we have a far greater deliverance for which to thank God. In the Gospel we hear words that, coming from the mouth of God Himself, should sound like some of the most beautiful words in the world: "Neither do I condemn you." For this we can truly say in the words of the responsorial psalm, "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy."