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Illustration: Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery, by Guercino, 1621 (Dulwich Picture Gallery)
Homily of Pope Francis for 5th Sunday in Lent
Saint Peter’s Square – April 6, 2025
Behold, I am about to do a new thing;
now it is springing forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
(Isaiah 43:19)
God spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel while they were in exile in Babylon.
It was a difficult time for the Israelites: it seemed that all was lost.
Jerusalem had been conquered and destroyed by the soldiers of King Nebuchadnezzar II, and the people, now deported, had nothing.
The future was bleak and all hope seemed dashed.
Everything could have tempted the exiled people to give up, to become bitter and to feel that they were no longer blessed by God.
But it was in this situation that the Lord invited them to embrace something new that was unfolding.
Not something that would happen in the future, but something that was already happening, something that was sprouting like a shoot.
What is it? In such a desolate and forsaken landscape, what could possibly be sprouting, or even already sprouted?
A new people is born.
A people that, having experienced the failure of the false securities of the past, now discovered what was essential to remain united and walk together in the light of the Lord (Isaiah 2:5 – O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.).
A people that would be able to rebuild Jerusalem because, far from the Holy City where the Temple lay in ruins and where solemn liturgies could no longer be celebrated, it has learned to encounter the Lord in a different way: through conversion of heart (Jeremiah 4:4 – Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go up like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”), by practicing law and justice, by caring for the poor and needy, by works of mercy
(Jeremiah 22:3 – Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor. Do not wrong the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place),
It is the same message that we find, in a different way, in today’s Gospel (John 8:1-11):
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again“
Here too there was a person, a woman, whose life had been destroyed, not by physical exile, but by moral condemnation.
She was a sinner, and therefore far from the law and condemned to ostracism and death. There seems to be no hope for her either.
But God does not abandon her.
In fact, at the very moment when her accusers are ready to stone her to death — precisely then — Jesus enters her life, defends her and saves her from their violence, thus giving her the opportunity to begin a new life.
“Go your way,” he says to her, “you are free,” “you are saved” (cf. v. 11).
Through these dramatic and moving stories, the liturgy invites us today, in the midst of our Lenten journey,
to renew our trust in God, who is always close to us and ready to save us.
No situation of exile, no violence, no sin, no fact of life can prevent him from standing at our door and knocking,
ready to enter as soon as we open ourselves to him.
(Revelation 3:20 –Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.).
In fact, it is precisely when the trials become more difficult that His grace and love embrace us all the more to lift us up.
Sisters and brothers, we read these texts as we celebrate the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers.
Sickness is certainly one of the hardest and most difficult of life’s trials,
when we experience in our own flesh our common human frailty.
It can make us feel like the people in exile, or like the woman in the Gospel: deprived of hope for the future.
But this is not the case.
Even in these times, God does not leave us alone, and if we entrust our lives to him, precisely when our strength fails,
we will be able to experience the consolation of his presence.
By becoming man, he wanted to share our weakness in all things
(Philippians 2:6-8 – though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.).
He knows what it is to suffer (Isaiah 53:3 – He was despised and rejected[a] by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we did not esteem him).
Therefore, we can turn to Him and entrust our pain to Him, certain that we will encounter compassion, closeness and tenderness.
But not only that.
In his faithful love, the Lord invites us in turn to become “angels” for one another, messengers of his presence,
to the point where the sickbed can become a “holy place” of salvation and redemption,
both for the sick and for those who care for them.
Dear doctors, nurses and health care workers, in caring for your patients, especially the most vulnerable among them,
the Lord constantly gives you the opportunity to renew your lives through gratitude, mercy, and hope
(Rom 5:5 – Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.) –
(cf. Spes Non Confundit, 11 (“Hope does not disappoint”)- The paragraph below is paragraph 11 of the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Year 2025_
Signs of hope should also be shown to the sick, at home or in hospital. Their sufferings can be allayed by the closeness and affection of those who visit them. Works of mercy are also works of hope that give rise to immense gratitude. Gratitude should likewise be shown to all those healthcare workers who, often in precarious conditions, carry out their mission with constant care and concern for the sick and for those who are most vulnerable.).
He calls you to realize with humility that nothing in life cab be taken for granted and that everything is a gift from God;
to enrich your lives with the sense of humanity that we experience when, beyond appearances, only the things that matter remain:
the small and great signs of love.
Allow the presence of the sick to enter your lives as a gift, to heal your hearts, to purify them of all that is not charity, and to warm them with the ardent and gentle fire of compassion.
Dear brothers and sisters who are sick: I have much in common with you at this time of my life.
The experience of illness, of weakness, of having to depend on others in so many things, and of needing their support.
This is not always easy, but it is a school in which we learn every day to love and to let ourselves be loved,
without being demanding or resisting, without regrets and without despair,
but rather with gratitude to God and to our brothers and sisters for the kindness we receive,
looking towards the future with acceptance and trust.
The hospital room and the sickbed can also be places where we hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us:
“Behold, I am about to do a new thing; now it is springing forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19).
This is how we renew and strengthen our faith.
Benedict XVI — who gave us a beautiful testimony of serenity during his illness — wrote that, “the true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relation to suffering” and that “a society that is incapable of accepting its suffering members… is a cruel and inhuman society” (Spe Salvi, 38).
It is true: facing suffering together makes us more human, and the ability to share the pain of others is an important step forward in any journey of holiness.
Dear friends, let us not exclude from our lives those who are frail, as a certain mentality unfortunately does today.
Let us not banish suffering from our surroundings.
On the contrary, let us turn it into an opportunity to grow together and to cultivate hope,
thanks to the love that God first poured into our hearts, the love that, above all things, remains forever
