DON’T LOOK BACK!
Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11
August 7, 1954. Vancouver, Canada. The venue of one of the greatest track and field events in history: the “miracle mile”. Only two men had run the mile under four minutes: Roger Bannister and John Landy. This was a face-off. At the start of the final lap, Landy was ahead and looked certain to win. But as he neared the finishing line, he wondered about Bannister’s position and looked back; his stride faltered, and Bannister passed him to win the race. Landy later said: “I would have won the race if I hadn’t looked back.”
Looking back is the cause of many of our problems. We need to look at the past and to learn from our mistakes. The problem is we remain looking back.
In the first reading, Isaiah commands the people in Babylon “to remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” These were nothing bad. They included the Exodus: their liberation and foundational event! Yet he asks them to “remember not” for Israel had problems whenever she clung to the past.
Paul, writing to the Philippians, recounts “the supreme good of knowing Christ.” He had been a model Pharisee. Now that he has been seized by Christ, the past no longer counts.
In the gospel, we hear of the woman caught in adultery. The problem was not the woman or her adulterous act. The problem is that scribes and the Pharisees are stuck in the past: entrenched in the law and weighed down by hatred towards Jesus and the woman. Jesus refuses to condemn the woman. The woman can now forget what lies behind and embrace the new possibility that grace gives her.
We have a past: sicknesses, horrible experiences; accomplishments, happy memories. We can carry our past with us and let it weigh us down. Or we can choose to leave it behind.
Do I look through the rear-view mirror or through the windshield of life? What are the things of the past that weigh me down and prevent me from enjoying the present?
