Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19
This is one of my favorite messages in the Bible. God is doing something new. How appropriate that I heard the reading from Isaiah at mass today. How appropriate that God gives us this message on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, just one week away from the beginning of Holy Week. How appropriate that I am choosing today to reintroduce Comfortably Catholic.
Spring is well underway here in Arizona and I'm sure it will be soon in other parts of the country. Seemingly dead things are coming back to life. In two weeks we will be celebrating Jesus rising from the dead.
But first we need to walk through the valley of the shadow of death - Holy Week.
I have been walking through my own spirtual darkness recently. Actually, it's not so much dark as gray. It's not enough to be alarmed about losing my way, but rather that my faith feels mediocre, lackluster and tired.
I need God to make all things new.
Today we also heard the story of the woman caught in adultery. Of course the focus of the story is always on the Pharisees who try to corner Jesus into condemning the woman so she can be stoned. Jesus turns the tables on them by making them look to their own sin. It's a great message. However, there is another message in that passage from John.
Jesus makes all things new for the woman caught in adultery.
He does not condemn her, but he also does not condone her behavior. He gives her a second chance, a clean start: Go, but do not sin again. John 8: 11. Maybe having the Pharisees drag her out into public was the best thing that happened to her. It not only exposed her sin, but offered her an opportunity to hear God tell her that He was making all things new for her through forgiveness.
Don't we all need that message at this time of year?
And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5
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