Celebrating 100 over years in Irondequoit
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Cycle C
Formed in the pattern of His death
Q572: Why did Jesus write on the ground with his finger (John 8:1-11)?
Q260: Why didn’t Jesus take this opportunity to speak out against sins of immorality in this gospel passage (Jn 8:1-11)?
There is a very subtle but very important link between the First Reading (Is 43:16-21) and our gospel lesson about the woman caught in adultery. It has everything to do with our own Lenten journey and spiritual renewal.
Let’s start by looking at the gospel. Jesus tells the woman’s accusers to go ahead and stone her to death – but the stoning has to be started by the one who is sinless. Dead silence! And then they all slink away, until no one is left to accuse the woman, who stands alone before God (although she doesn’t know that). Now let’s come back to the First Reading. The Lord tells us through the prophet Isaiah, “Forget all about the terrible past. Your past has resulted in a barren life, dryness, like a desert. But I am doing something new! I am making rivers in the desert! I bring new life, for all of you, my chosen people!”
This prophecy is fulfilled in today’s reading. Jesus brings “new life” to the woman, gives her another chance. He does not condemn her; after all, the Father sent the Son to save the world, not to condemn it (Jn 3:17). He does caution the woman, however, never to sin again (Jn 8:11). The message continues today for his followers. We are to condemn no one. In fact, the very measure we use to judge others, will be used to judge us (Lk 6:38)! Instead, we are to encourage everyone to avoid sin and return to God’s ways. That is evangelization - spreading the Good News of God’s forgiveness, mercy and unconditional love. Rivers of life flow from the side of Jesus on the cross, pierced for our sins and for our redemption!
Know Your Catechism! Are you ready to be judged by God, using as a sole criterion the very way in which you yourself judged others? It is absolutely critical to understand that judgment about actions is within our responsibility, but not judgment and condemnation about people – we leave the latter to the justice and mercy of God (CCC #1861). The limits of critical judgment concerning individuals must never stoop to defamation (CCC #2497).
Formed in the pattern of His death
A good saint to think about in Lent is St. Gemma Galgani. Within just a few years this modern Italian laywoman (1878-1903) achieved a remarkable likeness to the suffering Christ.
Gemma was a mystic - one of those rare souls called to so high a level of communication with God that we ordinary Christians simply cannot comprehend it all. Her vocation was to suffer with Christ. To the physical trials of spinal tuberculous were added many super natural trials. For instance, over several years she bore the stigmata of Christ's passion: not only the marks of His nails but of His scourg ing and His crown of thorns. She even experienced His bloody sweating. Constant meditation upon Jesus' death won for her a sense of His constant presence; and while in these ecstasies she had many conversations with Him in a low, sweet voice.
Now, the Church does not canonize people just because they are mysteriously marked with the wounds of the Passion. On these phenomena she passes no official judgment. When Pope Pius XI declared Gemma Galgani a saint in 1933, it was because of her gentle patience, her heroic virtue during years of pain.
Still, God does occasionally give to the world, it seems, a certain holy people who resemble Christ even more in being given the marks of His agony and crucifixion. Some think St. Paul may have been the first to receive this heavenly "branding". At all events, Paul says (in today's second reading): "I wish...to know how to share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His death."
Why so? Because it is only by uniting ourselves with Christ in His death that we can deserve to be united with Him in His resurrection. The whole paradox of Lent is "dying in order to live." In that sense we can say that St. Gemma Galgani was Lent personified.
-Father Robert F. McNamara
Q416: What ever happened to the concept of “tough love”? Jesus seems to be making it too easy for the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).
I remember my friend Fr. Jerry Fuller (†) saying once that those who hate the Catholic Church (or at least try to ridicule the Church) always point to our Sacrament of Reconciliation (“Confession”). They allege that we Catholics sin with abandon; go confess our sins every Saturday; and then we are free to sin all over again! They are unable to fathom how sinners can really feel sorry for their sins, confess them, and then fall into sin again.
You don't have to be a bishop or a doctor of philosophy to recognize that Jesus came to save us all, and that he accomplished our salvation by dying for our sins. Even on the cross, instead of turning against his torturers in anger, he spoke words of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!”
The most obvious characteristic of this God of ours, manifested in Jesus Christ, is his loving mercy. It overwhelmed the mind of St. Paul so much, as he stood in awe of such a merciful God, that he was compelled more than once to teach the stupendous fact that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (e.g., Rom. 5:7-8). The history of the Israelites through the centuries, as demonstrated in the Old Testament, is one of repeated failures in observing the Covenant. Catholics (and all humans, for that matter) also fail repeatedly, even after being forgiven over and over by the sacramental grace of God.
There is the constant challenge: to “go and sin no more,” just like the adulterous woman was counseled by Jesus. Then come those soothing words of relief, “neither do I condemn you”! This is what true forgiveness is all about. We must forgive, perhaps giving that person another chance to hurt us again. Isn't that what Jesus did for each one of us?
Know Your Catechism! It is through the sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church (CCC #980). This sacrament is necessary for salvation for those who have “fallen” after Baptism (Council of Trent).
Q572: Why did Jesus write on the ground with his finger (John 8:1-11)?
That has been one of the most fascinating actions by Jesus in all of the gospels, and draws many suggestions from movie makers and scripture scholars. Certainly the conclusion of the story is clear. The Pharisees were quick to test Jesus and point out that the Law condemns adultery with a punishment of stoning to death. Jesus confronts their selfrighteousness with a demand that they first examine their own consciences before they accuse another. After they depart in guilt like falling dominos, Jesus then forgives the adulteress and gives her another chance to amend her life.
I am fascinated with the Carmelite suggestion that this action of writing on the ground is a possible allusion to Jeremiah 17:13 (RSV). That verse says that those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord. Jesus is saying that he will not permit the Law to be manipulated by the Pharisees to condemn those they label as sinners, when the hypocritical condemners themselves are also sinners. Thus, just as the scribbling of Jesus that was written on the ground or in the sand will disappear with the wind and rain and be forgotten, so will the sins that God has forgiven disappear and be forgotten.
Lent is all about self examination, to root out personal sin in our lives and to seek forgiveness. Significant among the virtues to reflect upon and imitate is that of mercy. Yes, we stand condemned under the law, because each one of us is a sinner. But we also know that we will be forgiven by God, to the extent that we seek absolution and resolve to amend our life. We can expect forgiveness from the Lord to the extent that we forgive those who trespass against us.
KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! The home is the first Christian school where one learns love and repeated forgiveness (CCC #1657), based on the loving mercy of God. The gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin. There is no sin, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive (CCC #982) – even a sin that the Law
