Each year of the three-year cycle the Gospel readings for Lent takes us in a different direction. This year we are in Year C which is based on the Gospel of Luke, even though during Lent and Eastertime, it also borrows from the Gospel of St John.
As with all three years, the first two Sundays of Lent are based on the accounts of the Temptations of Jesus and then the Transfiguration of Jesus taken from Luke’s Gospel.
But then for the next three weeks in Year C, we have a concentration on forgiveness and sinfulness. These are the three gospel passages set down: Luke 13:1-9; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 and then John 8:1-11. These three gospels are there not to emphasise sinfulness but to emphasise the attitude of Jesus in face of human sinfulness.
The gospel for the third Sunday can be something of a puzzle. It is an unusual passage which begins: “Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices. At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans?’” The gospel continues from there and it is inviting us to see sinfulness in a new way!
The gospel for the fourth Sunday is that of the Prodigal Son which offers us a wonderful image of the love of God for those who stray away from him, and which makes us wonder if we might be like the elder son who insists on his rights and is self-righteous, having no forgiveness for his brother.
Then on the fifth Sunday, we have the account of the woman caught in adultery. In this story, we have the contrast between the attitude of Jesus to the woman and that of those who drag her humiliatingly before Jesus.
These gospel passages lead us into the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The attitudes of the religious leaders of the time, of Pontius Pilate, of the fickle crowd, of Judas Iscariot and even of his own disciples, lead to his death. The attitudes illustrated in those people is, but an instance of the same attitudes present among human beings today and indeed throughout all of human history.
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Laura Facci says:
Thank you Father Frank for guiding us through the Sunday’s of Lent. Much appreciated.