Is. 43:16-21; Ps. 126:1-6; Phil. 3:8-14; Jn. 8:1-11        

“God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus” brings us to the prize that lies ahead.  To St. Paul everything else he considered a “loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus”.  When we come to know Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior, we attain the prize and fulfill the first and greatest commandment to love God above all things.  When we respond to God’s upward calling the gates of heaven open up to us and the Lord does great things for us.             God’s upward calling is a call to repentance of our sins.  God desire’s not to “condemn you” but for us to sin no more.  God’s love is “gracious and merciful” and in Christ Jesus he is “doing something new” and wonderful, we have become his sons and daughters, partakers of the divine life.            

“Even now, says the Lord” regardless of the sins we have committed, regardless of the scars we carry from the past life, regardless of our weakness to fall back into our temptations his upward calling is “return to me with your whole heart”.  Here lies the dilemma, are we ready to give our whole heart to Jesus as St. Paul does that we may be taken “possession of by Christ Jesus”?  What is holding us back, is it fear of surrender, not being in control, not ready to give up our self-centeredness?   Our upward calling to come to Jesus is a rediscovery of who we were created to be, our true self in him.  Imagine the freedom of being our true self without fear of anything in this world.  Christ’s possession of us will transform us into a new creation to be holy as he is holy. 

In the gospel a woman is brought to Jesus to test him but instead Jesus turned it into the moment to test the Pharisees, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  This was the “come to Jesus, moment” for them and for the woman. Though they were ready to condemn her no one threw a stone but walked away.   They turned away from Jesus but she remained that her sins may be forgiven.  Have we had our “come to Jesus” moment recognizing our own sinfulness and need for forgiveness? 

We are the Pharisees when we claim by our own doing our self-righteousness whether we follow the law of God or the law of our conscience we try to call ourselves upward in our own eyes by our merits.  How foolish!  We are to call on Jesus who opens up the path upward for us.  We are also the woman conscience of our own sinfulness but remaining in our lifestyle not ready to repent and convert through the mercy of God.  We need our “come to Jesus” moment and in his mercy it will come.  Let us hope we are ready to respond with our whole heart and ready to receive the gracious love of Christ and be filled with joy.  The joy of the great things the Lord has done for us.

The “great things” the Lord did for his people written by Isaiah is when he “opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” of the Red Sea to save his people from the “chariots and horsemen”.  The Lord can save us as he opens the way out of sin that we may “remember not the events of the past” but spring forth by the miracles of our life for the Lord is “doing something new” in us when we offer ourselves up in surrender to him.  We are the offering he desires, the self-sacrifice of love. Love defeats the enemy in all its faces be it fear, anxiety, trauma, sickness and even death has no power over us.  The Lord is doing great things for us this day to rescue us from the evil one and to make us a people his own.  This is what St. Paul lived for and died for, that Christ may take possession of him. 

Often, we may pray for a miracle and wonder if God hears us and/or why does he delay in answering our prayers.  Is this a test of faith or perseverance or could it be that we seek the miracle without the giving of ourselves as the offering of thanksgiving?    We want the waters to be opened up for us but are afraid to walk through the path in fear of being swallowed up by the mighty sea and the “Jesus’ moment” comes like a wave only to return to itself as an undercurrent without us being washed by the waters of salvation.  We failed to respond by making an offering ourselves first.  The good news is that Jesus keeps coming calling us upward as another wave to the shore of salvation to be cleansed of our sin.  

Today is the day to respond with all our heart, strength, and faith.  Today the Lord is doing something new in our lives when we come to receive him, his body and blood in the sacrament of the Mass.  You have heard it said by many of our Protestant separated brothers and sisters of having a “born again experience”.  It represents a moment of conversion in their lives.  Jesus says in John 3:5 “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”.  We are born again by the waters and coming of the Holy Spirit in baptism but each day is also a rebirth into the life of Christ. 

Jesus is doing something new in our lives as baptized children of the Lord.  Still there is a “come to Jesus” moment that can change one’s way of life called in Greek “metanoia”.  A metanoia moment can be considered a “born again experience”.  This is what we search for through our Lenten journey coming from our penitence for a spiritual conversion to free us from sin and renew us in spirit and truth.  Have we had a metanoia moment this Lent?    Pray for revelation to know, love, and see God more clearly and the God who knows our hearts will provide us a metanoia moment to strengthen our bond of love of God and neighbor. 

Let us pray, “I do believe in God in who I trust, help my unbelief, my weakness, my troubled heart and bring my soul to conversion by your upward calling my Lord Jesus Christ.”