5th Sunday of Lent - Year C - 2025

Jeff Bagnall • 25 March 2025

The first reading from Isaiah chapter 43 speaks to a people being brought home by their powerful God; this despite their many faults and failings. Yahweh is the name He uses of himself, but also announces himself as their redeemer and saviour as well as their original creator who formed them into a people. No god could be imagined as great as Him who can bring his own through all manner of difficulties. They need have no fear now but can sing His praises. The whole chapter is worth reading to get the full force of this message and there we have the words of a well-known hymn “ Do not be afraid " which expresses these sentiments for us today.

In the second reading , Paul reminds the Philippians that he himself was once a Jew who, like the Pharisees and all devout Jews, aimed to win God’s favour by keeping all the precepts of the Law and, like them too, failing in the attempt. But he adds that he has put that aside now, lost this burden of trying to keep the rules because he has found a new insight into God through his encounter with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He knows that righteousness (being in a good relationship with God) must come from God not from the human recipients of His love. But what he is trying to do, is to imitate the sort of life Christ lived; a life devoted to God to the very end; but this is an ongoing enterprise that he has to pursue through whatever difficulties of life – it’s all well worth it. He is most likely saying all this because there are some in the church in Philippi who have a more Pharisaic approach to their religion and perhaps want to impose it on others.

The Gospel is from John but is not unlike the sort of accounts that Luke writes. It is the well-known story of the woman taken in adultery. It develops the theme from the second reading, about the inadequacy of the Law to gain righteousness, and the priority of God’s love and forgiveness. In that place and time it is the woman that is to blame for the adultery – nothing is said about the man involved. Jesus, with the love of God for all, says that the one who has no sin can cast the first stone towards her execution by stoning; but notice that Jesus is the only one there who has no sin, yet it is He who shows forgiveness towards her – He is the one who shows us what God is like, as we try to see what He is like and what He wants of us.

< Older Post Newer Post >

Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2025 - Year C

by Jeff Bagnall • 10 October 2025

The first reading is a story from the Book of Exodus, telling the tale of one of the many incidents from that epic journey of escape from slavery in Egypt, through many ups and downs until the entry into the promised land. The whole book was put together from various collections of stories that had been passed down through at least four or five centuries of retelling. The point of the whole and of each individual story, in general terms, is to say something about God and ‘the people of the Book’ and the relationship between the two; to teach people about their responsibility towards God and about His attitude towards them. The details in this tale about warfare and the rod of Moses, if taken literally, say nothing we would regard as true about the relationship between God and people; it was this rod that seemed to clear the sea for the people to cross when escaping the Pharaoh’s army, and this rod that produced water in the wilderness. But we get closer to the point of the story’s transmission and survival in our sacred Scriptures, if we see its significance for us today; it reminds us that the power of God is in everything, though we usually think of various sacred objects as reminding us of this.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2025 - Year C

by Jeff Bagnall • 2 October 2025

These readings might speak to us when we are going through difficulties or hard times. We must trust in God, do what we should, but most of all thank God for the benefits that we do have. Naaman had to listen to his servants and not give up because there was no dramatic exhibition of a miraculous cure. The early Christian leaders, especially, had to be prepared to suffer for the work they were doing and the beliefs that they had. And like the lepers, we should be prepared to keep the rules as long as we can, but that wont save us; it is God who saves those who are faithful, as He is always reliable. The first reading reminds us how people in the time of the Old Testament lived; there were kings or tribal leaders with nobles under them, they had servants who worked and cared for them, they had their own gods who operated in their territories, miracles and drama were part of their religions and the different small nations were uncertain of each other’s ambitions and motives. The lead up to the first reading is necessary for it to make sense; Naaman was a well-respected leader in a country adjoining Israel, who had leprosy and could find no cure; one of the servants of his wife was from Israel where Elisha was well known as a prophet and man of God; she suggested a visit to him might be helpful. The party set off with plenty of payment and gifts, but Naaman was disappointed when Elisha did nothing dramatic, but merely said go and wash in our river Jordan seven times. He was about to return home disappointed when servants persuaded him to try it all the same. And then we are into today’s reading. Elisha rejects any gift for the miracle and Naaman thinks the god in this land is powerful, so takes some of the land back with him to his own territory.