Gospel-Homily for Fifth Sunday of Lent (2025)

Read the Homily

Opening Day.

Who won the Super Bowl 2013?  The Baltimore Ravens.  I only know that because I looked it up. Does anybody really care who won the Super Bowl in 2013? Does anyone care that Wes Welker of the New England Patriots dropped the ball that same year on a third and long at the end of the fourth quarter during the AFC championships, and our Patriots did not advance to the Super Bowl?  No Patriot fan cares. Why? Because the Patriots have won three Super Bowls since then.  

Who is the happiest team at the end of the football season? That is an easy answer: The Super Bowl winners. Who is the second happiest team at the end of the football season? It is not the team that got into the Super Bowl and lost because they were not very happy. The second happiest is the team with the worst record during the regular season; it is the team that was in the last place in their division. Fans who wore paper bags over their heads because they were embarrassed to be associated with losers are now happy because they will have the best picks and can assemble a new team. They will have a new start and the past record is in the rearview mirror.

In the Gospel of John, there is the story of the woman caught in adultery. There are two sins in that story–adultery as well as an evil plot to trap Christ, so they have a reason to put Him to death. Jesus, with his mercy and kindness, lets them all go. No one is punished. So what is the difference between the men who were plotting the death of the Son of God and the woman caught in adultery? The men leave very unhappy because their trap is foiled. They leave and will continue to find a way to plot against Christ and put him to death. They experience no change, and their horrible past stays with them. The woman, however, goes away very happy because she gets a new start in life, a new beginning. Her past is wiped away forever. She is like a Red Sox fan on opening day who can forget the past season.

Here is the faith lesson. We who follow Christ are in a perpetual state of absolute happiness because we live in a Kingdom where every day is a new start. We all have bad days, regrets, past records, embarrassing moments. Christ gives us always a new start with His forgiveness and mercy.