Holy Week 2022 - Monday - Love for Christ and Love for the Poor

 From time to time, you come across a critic of the Church who claims that the grandeur of our church buildings, our precious vessels and vestments, our art, are all a slap in the face to the poor and hungry. The critic claims that instead of spending money on art and architecture, the money should be given to the starving and homeless.

The critic usually ignores the fact that already the Catholic Church does more to aid the poor than any other private organization in the world, that many religious brothers, sisters, and priests take a vow of poverty and renounce everything for God, and that countless Catholic families and individuals do sacrifice much of their income for the needs of the downtrodden.

In the attitude of such a critic, one often detects a bit of the attitude of Judas in the Gospel today. When Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus with the precious anointment, Judas calls it a waste. Let’s ignore, for a second the fact, that Judas was a thief, and was stealing money from the community purse, and that he justified theft in order to satiate his greed. Judas sneers at Mary’s devotion, her act of love, because Judas was loveless toward Jesus. He derides the act homage as a waste of time and money because he does not actually know how to give of himself. He hides his selfishness behind this fake concern.

To the world, our observances of holy week, our acts of devotion during these High Holy Days of our faith, are a waste of time and money. Why buy easter lilies that will wither and rot? Why use precious incense and vestments? Why waste time and effort in processions, venerations, silent prayer and fasting? For the same purpose we build grand churches, because we love Christ. 

Our love for Christ does not diminish our love and care for the poor and downtrodden. As true love for Christ increases, love for others increases. For we are to seek to serve Him in the poor. You can’t love God and hate your brother.

Our service, our worship, our art and architecture, our holy week devotions, are all expressions of our immense gratitude for what the Lord has done for us, the immensity of what he suffered for us, the blessings he has bestowed upon us.

So the snarky critic of the Church’s lavish worship of Christ, needs to look at the whole—the whole life of the Church—how our lavish love for Christ actually fuels our other charitable endeavors. 

So we must not be embarrassed to express our lavish devotion in concrete ways, especially during holy week. Yes, there might be some Judas’ out there who will mock and deride us. But there are also those on the fringes who will be converted when they witness our devotions, hard hearts that will be softened when they see our love for him, who goes to the cross for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. 

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

Palm Sunday 2022 - The Messianic King who reigns from the Cross

 Many times throughout his ministry, Jesus refused public recognition for his miracles and holy works. For example, after healing the deaf man in Mark chapter 7, the Lord orders the onlookers not to tell anyone about the miracle, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. Another example, after his first public exorcism in the synagogue of Capernaum, Mark tells us that the Lord “warned them sternly not to make it known.” And another example, in John’s Gospel, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the people wanted to crown him king right then and there, but he withdrew into solitude. 

Why did the Lord so often guard his Messianic identity and refuse public fanfare? Part of it had to do with the expectations of many of his fellow Jews. In those days, when you said the word Messiah, it conjured up the image of a political revolutionary who would overthrow Israel’s enemies through military force. Much of Israel was expecting a Messiah King to liberate the Jews from Roman domination. So the Lord distances himself from this political, earthly understanding of being Israel’s Messiah and refused efforts to make him King of Israel.

So how do we understand what happened on Palm Sunday? As we heard in our gospel at the beginning of mass today, the Lord allowed the people of Jerusalem to give him this kingly reception: waving palms, singing sacred hymns, laying down cloaks. Palms were the symbol of military victory. 

Well, there is certainly some irony to all of this. Most of these people thought that the triumphal entry marked the beginning of the end for Rome. They likely imagined that this Nazorean carpenter would soon be meeting with other revolutionaries, planning the violent overthrow of Israel’s oppressors, beginning perhaps with Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. But, the Lord enters the holy city in triumph, not to begin a military campaign, but to signal that the time had come for his campaign against sin and death

He is a king, but not the king they expected. He is the Messiah—the anointed one of God—but he has not come to carry out the violent overthrow of our political enemies, but to overthrow evil itself, by carrying our sins with him as he carried his cross, and allowing our sins to be crucified with him in his Passion and death.

This is why we proclaim both the gospel of the triumphal entry and the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday. You cannot have one without the other. The waving of palms is a misguided gesture if you believe Christianity is about establishing an earthly kingdom through any means necessary or that Jesus came to usher in some earthly utopia or some supreme form of temporal government. No. He has not come for that. 

The Messiah goes to the cross for you and me and for all people of all places of all times to pay the price for our sins, to redeem our fallenness, without which there is no hope of heaven for anyone ever, no hope of reconciliation with God, no hope of eternal life. 

Again, He is a Messiah and He is a King, but it is not on Palm Sunday that his identity as messiah is most manifest, his identity as king is most glorious. To those with eyes of faith, his procession through the streets of Jerusalem, bloodied and beaten, weak and on the verge of expiring, with the burden of our sins and the sins of the world on his shoulders, is more beautiful, and more glorious, than the palm Sunday entrance five days prior.

We sing Hosanna to Him because what he does on Good Friday. Hosanna, offered to a king, not as an earthly platitude or lip service, but as divine worship, in gratitude for our salvation.

He goes to the cross to make the humble, total immolation of himself for our salvation. And this week, we at least owe it to Him, to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Him. These are the High Holy Days of our Christian Faith. These are the days where we are to pray with the greatest intensity, fast with the greatest intensity, to show our love, to show our respect, to show our gratitude, to our King reigns not from some earthly throne, but from the cross, to our Messiah who defeats evil not through military means, but through self-emptying humble obedience to God. 

He gave all, he sacrificed all, he gave the best he had, for us.  May we do the same for Him this week, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Week of Lent 2022 - Wednesday - Pharisaical Idolatry

 The prohibition against idolatry was one of the first and most important laws God gave to the Jewish people. At Sinai, he tells them: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Idolatry became an issue for Israel on numerous occasions. Coming out of the desert, they encountered the Caananite peoples with their many gods. And many fell into idolatry, especially when they intermarried. When they were conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians, many fell into idolatry, worshipping the gods of their conquerors.

In the first reading today, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told they must worship an idol or be put to death. They are examples of courageous faith for Jews and for us as well. 

In the Gospel, the Lord addresses the idolatry of the Pharisees. The Pharisees claim to be children of Abraham and worshippers of the One True God of Abraham, but the Lord exposes their idolatry. They might not be offering burnt sacrifices to foreign Gods, they’re idolatry is more subtle, but far worse

Their hardness of hearts, their failure to show mercy, their failure to love the sinner are all evidence they don’t worship the one true God. For if they did, they would resemble the God they worship. The claim to be the religious experts, having an impeccable knowledge of scripture and theology. But they didn’t recognize the God revealed in the Scriptures when he appeared in the flesh before them. 

Worse still, they’ve subverted what religion was supposed to be all about. Right religion is about the right worship and love of God, of serving God, and seeking authentic holiness in this life. They were leading people not to seek authentic holiness, but to imitate their own errors and hardness of heart. 

Why did they hate Jesus? Because he exposed them, and sought to depose them. They put themselves in the place of God, and when he exposed their hypocrisy, they sought to kill him.

These readings certainly help us understand the animosity toward Jesus that led to his arrest and trumped up trials and Passion and Death in the upcoming week. Today’s readings also challenge us to examine our own idolatrous tendencies. Again, not that we are offering burnt offerings to pagan idols, but the idolatry of the self, of the ego, of the need to wrestle control away from God, the resistance toward obeying God and seeking to imitate God.

In the days ahead, may our hearts truly bow before the Lord in worship, as he goes to the cross for us, to save us from sin, to save us from ourselves; for in him we find true freedom, true peace, eternal life and joy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. 

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

5th Week of Lent 2022 - Tuesday - Listen to his love

 The Israelites in the desert had taken their eyes off of what God was doing for them, and allowed the poison of ingratitude fill their hearts.  God was freeing them from slavery and leading them to the promised land, but their complaints and hardness of hearts allowed poisonous and deadly ingratitude to direct their thoughts, words, and actions. The deadly poison of the Saraph Serpants was a symbol of the even deadlier poison of sin that reigned in them. The brush with death, like for many people, became a wake up call, they realized they sinned and repented. God provided a remedy for the poisonous snake bites but instructing Moses to place the bronze serpent on the pole. All who looked at it would live.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees allowed the poison of pride to fill their hearts. Failing to recognize that Jesus was truly the Son of God, Jesus told the Pharisees that they would die in their sins unless they looked upon him and believed that he was God.  

In these dark times, many have allowed sinful pride and sinful gratitude to dominate their lives. Man Catholics even have stopped looking to the Crucified for life. Many Catholics do not have crucifixes in their homes, they do not go to Church, and worse, they believe there’s nothing wrong. But, it is the task of faithful Christians to hold him up for the world to see—in our speech, in our behaviors, and in our prayers, that they may see him and believe.

The great lover of the Crucified, St. Paul of the Cross, would often go from parish to parish, preaching parish missions.  When he would preach these missions, he would often hold out to the congregation a crucifix, and simply holding the crucifix out for all to see, he would say, “listen to his love.”

He said, "When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to preach to you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent sermon!"

Look at the hands of Jesus, always open during life, still open, still giving, healing to the last drop of blood. Look at the feet of Jesus, which climbed the mountain of Calvary, now lifted up and nailed to the cross for our salvation. Look at the side of Jesus from which flowed the blood and water, the fountain of the sacramental life of the Church

If you know of any Catholics who have stopped looking to Jesus, bring them to Mass with you on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Help them to listen to his love, to see that he reaches out to them from the cross with tremendous love. We are to help them embrace Him, as he longs to bring them mercy, strength, and peace, as he has for us.  As we near Holy Week, may each of us keep his tremendous outpouring of love ever before our eyes, in our mind, and in our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. 

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

Passion Sunday 2022 (EF) - The Eternal High Priest and the gift of Mercy

Today the Church celebrates Passion Sunday, the beginning of the brief liturgical season called in the extraordinary form Passiontide, during which the Church turns all of her attention more explicitly toward the betrayal of the Lord, his sufferings and death. Passiontide helps us to prepare well to enter deeply into the mystery of, and receive more fruitfully than ever before, what the Lord accomplished for us during his passion, death and resurrection. 

Regardless of how the Season of Lent has gone until now — whether it’s been what it should have been, a season of conversion through more intense prayer, fasting, and sacrifice; or whether it’s been a series of missed opportunities — now is the time to focus, to get serious, to reorient priorities to make sure we’re not just bystanders of the sacred mysteries, but active participants, zealous recipients, and passionate sharers of Christ’s saving work.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are presented with this image of Our Lord as the Eternal High Priest. The letter contrasts the Lord’s Passion with the sacrifices offered on the Jewish Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, there were three ritual sacrifices: a bullock that, following the Book of Leviticus (16:15,21-22), the priest offered for his sins; a goat that he offered for the sins of the people; and, following what God dictated in the Book of Numbers (Numbers 19), a red heifer whose blood would be sprinkled in front of the tabernacle area and whose ashes would be placed in a clean place outside the camp. The Jews believed that those sacrifices, whether in the temple or in the desert, were necessary and sufficient for taking away their sins.

And so the Epistle to the Hebrews helps us to appreciate what the Lord accomplished as our high priest: he made forgiveness of sins possible for us by becoming not only our high priest but making himself the victim, the sacrifice, by whose blood achieve eternal redemption.

The Letter also makes clear what our response has to be: the High Priest and Saving Victim has cleansed us from dead works that we might use our freedom to “worship the living God.” And so, as we approach Holy Week, we need to examine whether worship of the living God is really the center of our life or just a part of it.

In the Gospel, the Lord is in contentious dialogue with the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, and others in the Temple area immediately after saving the life of the woman caught in adultery. In their hardness of hearts they had absolutely refused to acknowledge the mission of the Savior; as a result, they schemed in a thousand ways to oppose His teachings and to belittle Him before the people by declaring Him a liar and one possessed by the devil. Their animosity had increased to the point where they decided to stone Him.

But in the face of such hostility, the Lord exhibits zeal for their souls, meekness, and total abandonment to God; he seeks to enlighten their minds, attempting to drawn them away from error. We are certainly challenged to consider any hostility within us toward the conversion, purification and enlightenment the Lord desires for us, and seek to imitate his composure, his patience, his love, his conviction. We seek his mercy for squandering the time we’ve been given and allowing selfishness to continue to reign in our minds, hearts, and wills.

Nine years ago, Pope Francis preached his first Sunday mass as Pope, in which was read the Gospel of the woman caught in adultery, but his words are relevant to us as well. After explaining how the woman caught in adultery encountered the mercy of God,  the Holy Father stressed “God never tires of forgiving us…it’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Then he prayed, “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!”

Next week, on Palm Sunday, we will hear the Lord’s Passion, how the High Priest goes to the cross that each of us may be forgiven, over and over, if need be. All we have to do is repent, confess our sins, intend to sin no more, put forth some effort in amending our lives.

“May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!” for the glory of God and salvation of souls

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 A reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews

Brethren: But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

The continuation of the Gospel according to St. John

At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews:Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God.” The Jews answered and said to him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?” Jesus answered, “I am not possessed; I honor my Father, but you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the one who judges. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” [So] the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.

5th Sunday of Lent - Third Scrutiny - Raised from the dead

 Two weeks ago we heard the story of the woman at the well.  She encountered the Lord Jesus, who said to her, “I will give you living water, which alone can satisfy”.  She represents all of us, all thirsting for God. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos and our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of Christ and His teachings enlighten you. 

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He’s not just water, He’s not just light. He is Life itself. And he desire that His life might animate us in this life, that it might sustain us through death, and animate us in all eternity, including the resurrection. 

One of my favorite quotations from the early Church fathers is from St. Ireneus of Lyons, who said, Gloria Dei Homo Vivens, “the glory of God is Man fully alive.”  Jesus himself said, I came that they might have life, and have it to abundance. Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life.  God’s glory, what gives God happiness, is that we are fully alive.  Conversely, what saddens the heart of God is when we continue to allow death to reign in us at any level: physically, emotionally, spiritually.  

Next, week, on Palm Sunday, we’ll come to understand the price the Lord pays to defeat the powers of death in us. But on this fifth Sunday of Lent, we’re invited to consider how the Lord commands us to live. 

The wages of sin are death, writes St. Paul. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were commanded by God, do not eat of the tree or else you will die. Death is the result of sin, of being separated from God who is Life and the Author of life. We allow death to reign in us, when we indulge in sin with our minds, when we indulge in sin with our hearts, when we indulge in sin with our bodies, when we indulge in sin with our wills. 

The powers of death take root in our minds when we contemplate revenge, when we entertain lusts, when we plot to satiate our greed or to manipulate others. The powers of death take root in our hearts when we fail to forgive, when we bear grudges, when we envy. The powers of death take root in our bodies when we misuse our bodies to hurt, to steal, to fornicate, to gluttonously indulge in food or drink. The powers of death weaken our wills when we choose selfishness, when we choose wrath, when we choose not to act when we should, when we choose diversions over spiritual duty and spiritual endeavors like prayer.

But Jesus commands us, come out of your tombs, stop allowing death to reign in you. Jesus took flesh that we might have life and have it in abundance. He wants life to reign in our minds—considering how we can use our time to serve the kingdom with our unique set of talents, how we can work together with our neighbor to evangelize, how we can instruct the ignorant and pass on the faith to the next generation. He wants life to reign in our hearts—in compassion, generosity, and courage. He wants life to reign in our bodies—using our physical strength to help the weak, to build beautiful Churches like this one, to make beautiful music to assist in worship. He wants life to reign in our wills—choosing selflessness, choosing peace, choosing forgiveness, choosing mercy.

Lent helps us to identify where we have allowed death to continue to reign in us, and to engage in the spiritual practices that allows the life of Christ to flourish. Where has spiritual death continued to take root in you? What has caused you to fall short of that vocation described by St. Ireneus of being fully alive?

Last week, I repeated the invitation to make a good Lenten Sacrament of Confession. Confession is the way designated by God, instituted by Christ, in which sin is to be forgiven—where souls dead in sin or diseased with sin may be restored to life. 

St. Paul warns the Church in his first letter to the Corinthians about a particular type of sin that brings death to the souls and death to the Church, that of the sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion.  St. Paul writes, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died”

“Some have died.” In other words, some who have failed to examine themselves and confess their sins, and took communion anyway, have died the eternal death. It is the law of the Church going back to the very beginning, that mortal sins must be confessed prior to the reception of Holy Communion. Please, that life may flourish in you, if you have mortal sins, including previous sacrilegious receptions of Holy Communion, go to Confession. 

In his very first homily as Pope, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of repentance. “God never tires of forgiving us,” he proclaimed. “It’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Then he prayed, “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!” God never tires of raising us, like Lazarus, from the dead. Calling us to emerge from our tombs. He never tires of breathing new life into us.

This is true in our own lives, and also the life of our parish. Authentic revitalization in this parish will only come when there is sincere spiritual revitalization. That’s why I take Lent and Confession and the invitation to prayer so seriously. God wants to raise souls to new life. That’s the mission of the parish. To be a place where souls can receive life. To help us like Lazarus to be raised to new life. To help us be like Martha and Mary in today’s Gospel who brings Jesus to their brother who was dead. We have family members and neighbors whose souls are dead and rotting, who we must lead to Jesus by our prayers and penances and personal invitations. We should never pretend, that just because it’s 2022, that some sins are now okay. And repentance is optional.  I know, it’s unpleasant to think that some souls are in danger of hell. But that should motivate us all the more to pray and evangelize.

“I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land” we heard in our first reading. God has given us His spirit, He’s given us his life, and he’s given us this land, this parish territory, that we may make His life, his glory, his love known, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Lent 2022 - God never tires of forgiving us

 On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, St. Paul in the Epistle begged us, be “reconciled to God.” The prophet Joel, on the first reading of Ash Wednesday told us to return to God with your whole heart— a summons repeated in the acclamation preceding today’s Gospel. Ashes were then imposed on our foreheads, reminding us that we are dust, we mortal, we have sinned, we will face judgment upon our deaths, so must repent and believe in the Gospel. The call to reconciliation, repentance echoes throughout Lent. 

Last week, Jesus preached to us the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which we see the son repenting, turning back toward his Father’s house. And the very good news that underlies all of this, is that the call to repentance presupposes a God who longs to forgive us. When we repent, we meet a Father who has boundless love for each us of wayward prodigal children of his. The father runs to embrace the sinner, wraps his arms around him with tears of joy. There is more joy in heaven over the one sinner who repents, than over the 99 who do not repent.

The fifth Sunday of Lent continues the Lenten call to repentance. And everything should be counted as rubbish, as St. Paul puts it, that keeps us from knowing God’s mercy. 

In today’s Gospel, God’s mercy is made manifest in Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery. Just as Jesus wanted us last week to identify with the Prodigal Son, so he wants us to see ourselves in the woman caught red-handed. And just as he wanted us to recognize that often we can behave like the older brother in the Parable who resents mercy given to sinful siblings, so, too, he wishes us to drop whatever stones are in our hands. And just as last week’s Parable urges us to seek the joy of turning back toward our Father’s house, so in this week’s Gospel we are to seek that life-changing encounter with Jesus’ mercy as did the adulterous woman.

The Gospel begins with the scribes and Pharisees posing a dilemma to Jesus. The woman had been caught in the very act of adultery, the dilemma is what to do with her. The dilemma posed to Jesus by the Pharisees is do we stone her to death or not? Moses, whom the Pharisees regarded as God’s greatest prophet, commanded adulterers to be stoned to death. Do we obey Moses and stone her, or do we disobey Moses and not stone her? If Jesus says yes, stone her, then he contradicts his own teaching about forgiveness and mercy. He’s also violating Roman law, since the Romans did not give the Jews the right to capital punishment. If he says no, don’t stone her, then he’s contradicting Jewish law and telling them to disobey the law that came from the greatest of God’s prophets. If Jesus refuses to answer, well then he can be dismissed as coward or as an authentic teacher.

So what does he do? In his divine genius, he tells them: “Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” He doesn’t evade the question, he shows that they were evading their own sinfulness. You claim she has a lot to answer for…you have a lot to answer for. He challenges them to look in the mirror. The adulterous woman is a mirror for them and for us. 

And what happens? You want to talk about a miracle? The fact that each of the Pharisees dropped their stones and actually walked away. Maybe there is hope even for the spiritually blind Pharisee to recognize his sinfulness. 

Again, the woman caught in adultery is a mirror for us to see ourselves and our sins. Every sin, in a sense, is an act of adultery toward God, because all sin is infidelity to the spousal covenant of love we have entered into with God through baptism. Every sin is a misuse of our God given free will which in justice should result in the loss of heaven forever. 

For the consequence of sin is relative to the one who has been offended or hurt by our sin. If you commit a crime against a fellow civilian, there is a minor punishment. If you commit a crime against a police officer, there is a greater punishment. If you commit a crime against the president, there is an even greater punishment due to the importance of his office. If you commit a crime against God, who is infinite in grandeur and goodness, well, that incurs the greatest of debts and merits the severest of consequences, no?

We need a savior, who is God and man, God who alone can forgive our sins, and man to pay the price. And the good news of Lent is that indeed we have such a Savior. Forgiveness of the debt is available through Christ. 

But, failing to repent that we have “greatly sinned … by our own … most grievous fault,” is like saying, I don’t need a Savior. Unless we recognize that we’re really sick—in need of the doctor—we cannot appreciate either the medicine of mercy or the Divine Physician who dies to dispense it.

As the Pharisees walk away, the Lord says to the woman, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Notice, Jesus doesn’t say, “there’s nothing to forgive. Don’t worry about it. You’re only human.” He calls her sin a sin, but offers her a new beginning. “Go and sin no more”. 

What a beautiful command. One of the most beautiful in all of scripture. Go and use your god-given free will in a way pleasing to God. Is there anything more beautiful than that command? To live a life free from serious sin!  The Lord would never have commanded it if it weren't possible. To the soul abandoned to Christ, It's possible. Which is what he’s offering this woman. To all of us. A new start. As long as we draw breath.

Nine years ago, Pope Francis preached his first Sunday mass as Pope. And this was the Gospel that weekend. And the Holy Father stressed “God never tires of forgiving us…it’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Then he prayed, “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!”

Next week, on Palm Sunday, we will hear the Lord’s Passion, how Jesus goes to the cross that each of us may be forgiven, over and over, if need be. All we have to do is repent, confess our sins, intend to sin no more, and put forth some effort in amending our lives.

“May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!” for the glory of God and salvation of souls