5th Sunday of Lent Year C. By Tobe Eze

5^th Sunday of Lent Year C.

First Reading

Isaiah 43:16-21

Second Reading

Philippians 3:8-14

Gospel

John 8:1-11

THEME: THE LOVE OF GOD ON HUMANITY.

A man after so many years of being a Catholic, temptation came through his son. His second son fell sick, the sickness was very serious that people told him that it was caused by spiritual power. Many advised him to go to a native doctor, others to a prayer ministry and others to chapel and booking of mass. As a strong catholic, he started with booking of mass and chapel but things were not turning to be good, he latter went to prayer ministries that their Parish Priest asked them not to go, things were not also getting better. Lastly he went to a native doctor who made the boy to be well. The boy got healed but they were made to promise that they will continue to sacrifice to the god of the native doctor till the end of the life of the boy. Continue Reading................................

The sacrifice was meant to be every month. After two years, the man met the native doctor again to ask him if there is anything they can do to stop that, but he said no. when he has seen that things have gone out of hand, he came back to rosary, chapel and booking of mass. At a point, he stopped the sacrifice and concentrated on the catholic prayers. The sickness came back. He vowed never to go back to the native doctor. Pressures were coming from every angle but he insisted. After four months, the boy started getting better. With the help of drugs and prayers, he eventually got healed. After seven months of his recovery without any sacrifice, the man shouted. THERE IS NOTHING, NOBODY OR NO god TO BE COMPARED WITH OUR GOD. HE DOES EVERYTHING FREE!

From the first reading through the second reading to the gospel, we can see the manifestation of the love of God to us even in our sinful way of life. In the first reading, he provided everything for us even when it seemed impossible. He made water to come out from a serious desert which naturally is impossible. He does that to us everyday but we do not recognize that. Many things we see in life, we take them for granted because we do not know that they are born out of God’s love. If we have understood the love God has for us, we would have followed St. Paul to count everything as worthless except things in Christ Jesus. After checking his achievements in life outside Christ and in Christ, he came to the conclusion that all outside Christ is worthless. If we are able to see all things outside Christ as worthless, then, we will see the good works of Christ in our lives just as the woman in the gospel saw today. She has been living in sin and the world condemned her. When they brought her to Jesus for final condemnation, she was saved because of the love God has for humanity. We have sinned in many ways that have merited our death but God’s love and mercy have not left us and we are thinking that we are righteous just like those that wanted to kill the woman.

We calm righteous many times and condemn others without even looking into ourselves and sometimes we will end up condemning a just person and glorying in our sin. Sometimes we are disgraced like those men that brought that woman to be killed because after saying the whole truth about us, we will leave one after the other in shame. Again, another deadly problem of the world is “our own person”. They did not bring the man that the woman committed the adultery with. They were protecting evil because their own person was involved. The same thing is obtained in our societies these days. In some places, when a woman commits adultery, she is asked to perform some sacrifices for cleansing. Some of these sacrifices are very dehumanizing. The man or men that they did it with are always save, they do not perform any sacrifice. It is fighting evil in an unjust manner which is evil in itself. We should look into our ways of fighting evils and also bear in mind that, if God should follow us as we are following others, we all will die and perish. The love of God for humanity is enormous and it is on that we are still alive. Let us appreciate his love for us for there is nothing that we can use to pay for it. Let us go today and sin no more. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.