This week's readings Week of Apr. 6 - 12 Sunday, April 6, 2003 Reading I: Jer 31:31-34 Reading II: Heb 5:7-9 Gospel: Jn 12:20-33 Monday, April 7, 2003 Reading I: Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62 Gospel: Jn 8:1-11 Tuesday, April 8, 2003 Reading I: Nm 21:4-9 Gospel: Jn 8:21-30 Wednesday, April 9, 2003 Reading I: Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 Gospel: Jn 8:31-42 Thursday, April 10, 2003 Reading I: Gn 17:3-9 Gospel: Jn 8:51-59 Friday, April 11, 2003 Reading I: Jer 20:10-13 Gospel: Jn 10:31-42 Saturday, April 12, 2003 Reading I: Ez 37:21-28 Gospel: Jn 11:45-56 Pope's Prayer Intentions April General Intention Live according to the spirit: That those who hold positions of responsibility in the Church may be an example of a life responsive to the guidance of the Spirit. April Mission Intention The universal call to holiness: That clergy, religious, and laity who work in missionary lands, may bear witness to the universal call to holiness.

Washed of our sin:
We are created anew

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

The great penitential Psalm 51 can be at the heart of our penance this Lent, for in it we pray "create a clean heart in me, O God." And we need that prayer especially this Lent, which has become a time of violence and war in the world.

As we examine our conscience ever more deeply in this season of Lent, as we find there whatever it is that leads us away from God and toward the destruction and death of sin, we can see more clearly how much we need to ask the Lord to create within us a clean heart.

"Let the love of Jesus be our love, so that we may be washed clean of sin, turned from violence toward mercy, from war toward peace, and in all things created anew for God."

The imagery of washing, of wiping out, of cleansing, of creating anew - each of these ways of looking at what God does for us when we turn to him with sorrow for our sins shows us God's deep and abiding love for us, even when we are sinners.

By the waters of baptism the Lord has washed away the stain of original sin, and has made us into people who are his friends. Each time when we turn away from those baptismal promises and instead sin against the Lord, it is as if we drag our baptismal robe through the mud and filth, trampling on God's promises and grinding the dirt in hard.

Readings for Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 6, 2003) Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33

Yet each time we return to God with a heart filled with sorrow and penitence, the Lord washes that baptismal garment in the blood of the innocent Lamb, Jesus Christ, and returns it to us white as snow, cleansed of all impurity, wiped clean of all that is not pure and holy. It is as if we are created anew when the Lord forgives our sins, and when we hear those words of absolution and the encouragement, "go and sin no more."

Even in the Old Testament we see how God's forgiveness and mercy work on those who love him. "I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more," writes the prophet Jeremiah. Such is the result of the new covenant that God promised to his people, placing his law within them and writing it upon their hearts.

"I will be their God, and they shall be my people," says the Lord God through the words of his prophet. Our conscience within us, our clean heart created anew within us, helps us to remain the friends of God, his people.

It is not always so easy, however. The hearts we desire to be forever clean quickly become soiled, for we are weak and sin still finds a place in us. It is easy for us to grow angry or impatient, or to allow thoughts and deeds impure to impress their stain upon us.

And yet Jesus, Saint Paul writes, "became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." He who died as a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies will raise us up as he was raised up. He who produces much fruit for his heavenly Father teaches us to do the same. He who laid down his life on the cross will lift us up to eternal life.

At the heart of our penance, then, is Jesus. As we gaze upon him on the cross, let us whisper that prayer, "create a clean heart in me, O God." Let us be sorry for the sins which have scourged the Lord Jesus and nailed him to the cross, and let our actions and words in the world be actions of peace, words of forgiveness.

In short, let the love of Jesus be our love, so that we may be washed clean of sin, turned from violence toward mercy, from war toward peace, and in all things created anew for God.

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.