What will be new? I know the newspapers and news programs have
been asking anybody they can “what do you hope for in a new
pope”? How would you answer that? What NEW thing would you like to see God do
through this Pope?
If anyone asked me, my answer would
be – I
hope we have a strong defender of the Catholic faith –
someone who will protect what we have believed for 2000 years. At the same time, I hope our church finds new
energy to evangelize folks – not just outside the church – but
the people in the pews – and those who no longer come
to Mass – to
bring us all to a stronger belief in the teachings handed down from the
Apostles. I pray that this transition of
a new Pope is simply the turning of a page of history which continues the
amazing story of the Body of Christ. The
Lord IS doing something new – and I can’t
wait to see what it is! Expect the
unexpected!
Let’s look at the story in the
Gospel….about
the woman who was about to be stoned. In
the PAST, the Jews knew they had every RIGHT to stone this woman to death. In fact, the only reason they didn’t
already do it in this case is because Rome had forbidden them to put anyone to
death. But this was their law – the
law of God handed down from Moses. Ever
since they left Egypt, God was very stern about them putting to death ANYTHING
or ANYONE who threatened the law. If you
have been watching the Bible on the History channel, you may remember what
happened to King Saul. He spared the
life of an opposing King, and for that, he lost favor with God. That’s how the Jews thought God
worked! From experience, they saw that
when Israel sinned, they were punished –severely – the
first reading comes from one of those times of punishment when the Israelites
were exiled to Babylon. So they took the
law seriously…
they didn’t
want to be exiled again – so they tried to nip it in
the bud! Paul was one of the greatest
defenders of that law. In fact, it’s
not in the story, but you can bet that Paul would have been one of the first
people to get into this mob to stone this woman.
But notice something new happened in
the second reading – Paul had spent his entire life zealously defending that
law – but
in today’s
second reading – he
says everything he lived for in the past he now considers rubbish! Pretty strong words… but
he had found something NEW. Nobody
expected Paul, of all people, to become Christian!!! Expect the unexpected.
Jesus doesn’t do
the expected either. He doesn’t
pick up a rock like any normal, self-respecting Jew…
instead he draws with his finger in the dirt.
That had to be SO frustrating to the people in that crowd. Here they were all fired up and ready to
satisfy their thirst for blood – but Jesus lets the air out of
their tires. “Let
him without sin cast the first stone.” In other words, Jesus is saying –
look – you
all KNOW that YOU are sinners TOO – and there is NO sin that
DOESN’T
deserve death. If you are self-righteous
enough to think that your sin is not as bad as hers, go ahead…stone
her… but
remember that whatever lack of mercy you show toward her will be shown to you
in return.
Jesus is doing something new: In the mind of the Jew, JUSTICE was the chief
characteristic of God… but Jesus is showing us that God’s MERCY
triumphs over Justice.
Another thing to notice – put
yourself in the shoes of the woman in the story. Imagine the shame – but
more than that - imagine the fear! She
had to be scared-to-death with this angry mob dragging her into the street and
picking up rocks. Can you even imagine
how scared we would be in that situation?
That’s
important –
because it changes how we would react to the last line in the Gospel – “Go
and sin no more.”
Well isn’t
that nice of Jesus…such a pious thought… go and sin no more…. We hear the same thing when we leave
confession- go and sin no more. It goes
in one ear and out the other. But
imagine if we realized like SHE did that WE DESERVED to DIE for our sins – and
we just about got what we deserved. Those
words of forgiveness from Jesus are more than ‘nice’… those
words saved her very life…. You and I deserve the very
same penalty for our sins. Yet – we
tend to forget that. We haven’t
been drug into the street by a blood-thirsty mob. It hasn’t become REAL to us.
(pick up stone) A friend of mine came home from church one
evening and found her husband with another woman. What a shock… what a kick in the gut. Imagine the intense pain of betrayal she
felt. Imagine the overwhelming anger
which rose up inside of her as she kicked that other woman out….all
the while thinking, “what am I going to DO with HIM!?”.
By all rights, she could have kicked
HIM out as well. How can you do this TO
ME!? Given the same situation, any one
of us would have kicked the bum out! But
she didn’t. Instead of kicking him out… she
tried to forgive him. Instead of stoning
him, they talked… and
in talking, they resurrected a relationship.
He realized how unworthy he was of such a forgiving wife….
And THAT realization helped him to change.
No – it
wasn’t
easy – but
in the end, their relationship is stronger now…because of the mercy she gave. She did the unexpected.
You and I have all had something like
this happen. Some guy pulls out in front
of us and causes us to have a wreck… somebody at work doesn’t
pull their weight… our own parents made a big mistake when raising us… a brother or sister stole something that was
rightfully ours in the will…. we have EVERY right to be
angry with them! We have every right to
stone them… to
put them out of our lives. But Jesus is
doing something new. He offers mercy
instead of justice. Any time we
pick up a stone – any
time our anger flares up – we should remind ourselves
that we TOO deserve to be stoned. Look
at the rock in your hand…then think of the mercy of
Jesus – and
do the unexpected. (drop the stone)
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