Is 43:16-21
“Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
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.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for Myself,
that they might announce My praise.”
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
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.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for Myself,
that they might announce My praise.”
(The Loving Programmer tells believers not to focus on His destruction of the enslavers who held His people in earthly slavery. He is telling us of a New Download, and asks if we don’t perceive it? He tells us that He is bringing life to the desert, and wild, untamed men will listen to That Life. The First Reading includes an Allegory of Catholic Communion. It also lets us know that those who prey upon their neighbors (wild beasts) will come to believe in Him, and the people He has chosen to live with Him forever in Heaven will be with Him, once they have drunk His Blood, (the rivers in the wasteland).)
Responsorial Psalm, Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
(The Loving Programmer has brought us out of captivity in Babylon. It was the second time He delivered them from slavery. Truly, He has done great things for His people, delivering them twice from slavery into freedom, and countless times in between. We are filled with joy because of the great things He has done for us. “Torrents in the Southern desert”? People flocking toward Him.
Reading 2 Phil 3:8-14
“Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the sharing of His sufferings by being conformed to His death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the sharing of His sufferings by being conformed to His death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
(St. Paul has lost Himself in The Program, and has renounced all the lesser, programmed entities. Programmed entities are “rubbish”. Our salvation is most important. Among the things he has left behind is the overly complicated system of law that had evolved among the Tribes. He has replaced it with “that which comes through faith in Christ”. Depending on belief, He knows Christ and the power of His resurrection and that he, and by implication, all believers, may rise from the dead,being saved from death.)
“It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
“but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
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.”
or have already attained perfect maturity,
“but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
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.”
(St. Paul still has work to do during his time on earth, and does not consider himself to “have taken possession”. Still, like the First Reading, he forgets what The Loving Programmer has done in the past, and strains toward that which is ahead, continuing to pursue the goal, the prize, God’s calling him, and us, upwards in Jesus Christ. Thinking about what God will do is more important than remembering what He did do. His love is the most important thing on earth. )
Gospel John, 8:1-11
“Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
‘Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?’
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
‘Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
‘Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, ‘No one, Sir.’
Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.’”
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
‘Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?’
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
‘Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
‘Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, ‘No one, Sir.’
Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.’”
(Those caught in sin may be forgiven. In this case, the woman was forgiven with no mention of her asking to be forgiven. And, God, Himself, did not condemn her, but did tell her not to sin any more.)
