We probably all know the basic storyline where a hero beats incredible odds to triumph over evil and rescue his true love. Sometimes he seems to have given his life in the process. But then, having cheated death somehow, he suddenly reappears. And he and his beloved live happily ever after. This is so familiar from fairy tales, romances and even action-adventure stories that it’s almost the ultimate cliché.
On Palm Sunday we enter Holy Week. We follow Jesus as he makes his royal entrance through the gates of Jerusalem. But Jesus is not a king who comes with any trappings of power. He has no conquering army or court servants. He arrives in complete humility, riding on a donkey.
Well we are half-way through Lent and our preparation for the forthcoming events through Holy Week and Easter Sunday, how is your Lent going? One of the recurring themes in the readings through this time is that of the compassion and mercy of God and is something that we need to be continually reminded of.
The readings in today’s Mass have a general theme – forgetting what has happened in the past, and looking towards the future. Like the woman in today’s Gospel, we are sinners who ask God for forgiveness. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is the one on trial in this public setting where a woman is condemned by the scribes and Pharisees for having committed adultery. The woman is no more than a dispensable object in the process, a means to a sinister end.
The word ‘transfiguration’ can mean two things that seem closely related but are actually quite different. According to one definition, it means simply “a sudden change in appearance, possibly to an exalted form”.
