"It all depends on how you look at it." Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

What I mean by that saying is that the knowledge and perspective we bring to any experience determines how we feel about that experience. For example, those old enough to remember the postwar era might recall scenes of big, modern factories belching smoke—hailed as a sign of prosperity. Now, we may look at such scenes with a sensitivity to environmental issues; our perspective is different. It all depends on how you look at it.

This Sunday's Scriptures invite a similar change of perspective: Isaiah urges the people to forget about the Exodus-event, the passage through the Red Sea. Instead, the people are to take notice that God is doing something new. Paul tells the Philippians how knowing Christ has caused him to consider everything else as "rubbish." And Jesus himself turns accusation into forgiveness with a simple phrase inviting the scribes and Pharisees to look at a sinner from the perspective of their own sinfulness.

Lent is a time to alter our way of looking at ourselves and our world. What surprises await us this week, as we re-orient ourselves, based on our coming to know Jesus Christ.

I’m Father Greg Friedman with the "Sunday Soundbite" for St. Anthony Messenger Press, on the Web at FranciscanRadio.org.