When does our journey to salvation begin?
Given that their whole tradition was utterly grounded in
past history, a history riddled with failure, it was hard for the people of
Israel to believe that God was ready to do
something new… Yet the prophet Isaiah brings this message to them while
they are still in exile: it is time to
move forward from the sins of the past and open yourselves to transformation,
for God will always surprise you. In the desert I make a way, in the
wasteland, rivers, Isaiah says; God is preparing their return even as they
despair. That return will, of course, be
a time of joy, as Psalm 126 notes: Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and
our tongue with rejoicing. The
people's journey toward salvation begins as soon as they learn they cannot base
their lives in the past alone, as soon as they look forward to the new way God is opening in their lives.
Likewise, the woman caught in adultery in John's Gospel has
little hope of survival; she knows she is guilty, though ultimately no one will condemn her. As Jesus'
intervention into her case demonstrates, God is not interested in the past so
much as where the woman can go from here:
Go, and from now on do not sin any
more. She is to get rid of a shell
that doesn't really define her, to see the growth before her, not the death
behind her. St. Paul has had a similar
experience: knocked off his horse, he came
to realize that his past persecution of Christians had been misguided. As he tells the Philippians, he will spend
the rest of his journey straining forward
to what lies ahead, continuing his pursuit
toward the goal that is ultimate union with God in heaven. Both Paul and the woman have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus; their journey, their
path, their way, is forward only, as
they strive to embrace the grace God has revealed to them.
Our journey toward salvation begins as soon as we open
ourselves to the transformation God desires from us, to the grace God has
revealed to us, to the love and mercy that are greater than we could ever
imagine. Our journey will not be
complete until we reach perfect union with God in heaven, but so long as we are
open to participating in salvation in the here and now, we will be able to make
that love so revealed manifest in the world.
The Lord has done great things for
us: let us be filled with joy!
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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