“Something New Is In The Air” by Rachael Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Winter can be long. Bitter cold, snow-shoveling, ice-picking your car out of the snow banks and dressing in so many layers that it’s impossible to tell if you are man, woman or wookie. Perhaps this winter has felt so long that you, like myself and Frodo Baggins from “The Return of the King,” can’t remember the sound of a rushing river, the touch of grass or the taste of strawberries.
If this was a particularly tough year for you, you might be pining even more than others to get to “the finish line” of the school year and enter summer vacation. I experienced this in the worst of ways my senior year of college. Some of my best friends had graduated the year before and moved on, and I decided to live with a group of friends who I thought were fun, but the truth is, they were not great influences. I tagged along with them a lot and made some not-so-great choices that were out of character for me. It was during the coldest days of that winter that I hit my lowest points and slipped into some pretty dark loneliness. For most of that year, I wore a mask and tried to change myself to fit in with this group – so much so that I felt myself drifting further and further away from the person I knew I really was. This culminated in a point of heartbreak when I realized, despite my efforts, this group of people didn’t even care much about the person I was, or even the person I was trying to be. They just wanted someone to help pay their rent. I felt used, hurt and even embarrassed.
But something happened when the spring came. When the earth tilted back on its axis, I could hear the birds chip again and feel the sun on my face, I suddenly didn’t feel as hopeless. Something new was in the air, and with it, I felt a sense of anticipation, renewal and energy bubbling up through me. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew something good was on my horizon.
The readings at Mass this week reflect very well what I was experiencing. Although we are still in the Lenten season, the passages give us a foretaste of the joy of Easter and hope of a new beginning. The first reading urges us, “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?” (Isaiah 43:19). The passage goes on to paint the picture of God refreshing the earth, putting water in the deserts and rivers in the wastelands so that the thirsty could drink deep and praise God.
The Psalm, too, speaks of renewal: “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.” (Ps. 126:1-2) Historically speaking, these passages refer to the Hebrew people returning to their homeland after being conquered and exiled, but as I went through the process of recovering who I really was, I felt like I was coming home after a long stint in the desert.
The second reading also encourages us to cut our losses and leave anything in the past that previously separated us from Christ. “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.” That spring, I strained toward the summer, my college graduation and a new beginning for myself. I took control and made strides to surround myself with people who would build me up, encourage me in my faith and truly love me for who I was, as I found my footing in the “real world.”
The woman in the gospel also experienced a new beginning. She had been caught in the act of adultery, was thoroughly humiliated and brought to Jesus by a mob of people who were ready to stone her. Fortunately for the woman, Jesus reminded her accusers of their own shady baggage and challenged them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” It was the accusers’ turn to be humiliated. One by one, they dropped their stones and left, remembering with embarrassment the things they had done wrong in their lives. Jesus turned to the woman and said that he would not condemn her either. “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
The weather is changing and something new is in the air. Something new was in the air for the woman in the Gospel, for the exiled Hebrews and for me. Something new is in the air for you, too. “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” What is it that you are going to leave behind? What vices, sorrows, grudges or bad habits can you bury in the tomb with Jesus as you wait for Him to rise? What will you strive for as the days of Lent continue to tick by?
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