Word of the Week

5th Sunday of Lent

Prize: Brabeion (Gk.): meaning, “the award to the victor in the games, a prize”. Also used as a metaphor of the heavenly reward for Christian character.

There is no mentioning of prize found in the CCC, but there is a clear catechesis on victory with regards to the battle that has been waged between good and evil, Christ and Satan. In fact, up to sixteen paragraphs address this topic of Christ’s victory over sin and death. In particular, there are two paragraphs that communicate areas of great significance to how we claim victory and move toward that prize of the beatific vision: sonship by grace and redemptive suffering. The CCC states, “…Justification consists in both victory over death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrecction: “Go and tell my brethren” (Mt.28:10; Jn.20:17). We brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was full revealed in the Resurrection” (654). The CCC adds later: “…By his Passion and death on the Cross has given us new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion” (1505). Simply, these two paragraphs call us to contemplate the importance of sonship and suffering in the wake of a prize to be won.

We have from Paul the lone two uses of the aforementioned Brabeion: 1 Cor.9:24 and Phil.3:14. In his first letter to the church of Corinth, Paul compares the spiritual life to a competitive race, where the faithful are to exert discipline and self-mastery to obtain the prize (cf. 1 Cor.9:24-27). Interestingly, he uses the image of the “perishable wreath” worn by the victor of the local sporting event (Corinth traditionally held the popular Isthmian games), against the “imperishable” prize of Christ (Hahn and Minch, 30).  In his epistle to the Church of Philippi, Paul again uses the metaphor of a race to exhort the locals to press forward in holiness to attain the prize of heavenly Jerusalem (Phil.3:12-21). It is clear that Paul was fond of using athletic metaphors to juxtapose earthly events to better understand spiritual realities. This Fifth Sunday of Lent, that draws us ever closer to Palm Sunday and Good Friday, affords us the opportunity to consider such a metaphor in light of the call to live in purity.

This week’s readings, our highlighted by the woman caught in adultery (cf. Jn.8:1-11). In this scene, Christ paints for us a picture of his mercy: the forgiveness of a sin that in the old dispensation was punishment by stoning to death (Lev.20:10). Christ’s forgiveness of the woman’s sexual sin is the first sin in all of Sacred Scripture that Christ forgives. His words: “do not sin again” (8:11) urges the woman to press forward in purity and holiness. The woman has before her the prize and at once the call to live her earthly life in a discipline of the flesh to return to her prize. As individual members of the body of Christ, let us press forward, like that of the adulterous woman, in purity and holiness. Let us remember our call in sonship by grace to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord (cf. Rom.12:1-3).

 

“And two were left, the wretched one and mercy” (regarding the scene of Christ and the adulterous woman).

--St. Augustine

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The First and Second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, RSV 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003.

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