March 21, 2010
Fifth Sunday of Lent
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Isaiah 49:18-19
Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "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." John 8:9b-11
Piety
Piety considers everything that does not speak Christ from the heart a loss. Piety gives us a claim on holiness. Zero tolerance is such a poor reflection of the forgiveness of Christ that there is obviously something wrong with it. Paul accepted the loss of all things and even good things were looked at as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Even good things that capture our energy can be considered a loss if they keep us from focusing Christ with all our minds, hearts and souls. The terrible things that gave birth to the notion of zero tolerance are all that terrible. Treating people with zero tolerance is just as terrible. We have an awesome challenge in the way Christ treated the woman caught in adultery because it is so easy to condemn others for what we are not caught at. The notion of zero tolerance dirtied the Church more than we will perhaps ever be aware of because it mocks the charity of Christ who did not let off the hook those who wanted to stone the woman taken in adultery. When he told them that the one without guilt could cast the first stone, none of the bystanders could qualify as sinless. Christ who was without sin did not condemn her. Our piety to be as genuine as it needs to be in following Christ, will not allow us to be critical of others. Our piety if it will reflect Christ will not allow us to be a condemning person. Piety calls us to give everyone a chance to change. We can condemn the sin. We should not condemn the sinner until they have failed to take the chance to change. Our piety protects those who cannot defend themselves. Piety encourages sinners to change.
Study
Christ studied the Word of God we find in the Old Testament. So much of who Christ is, is portrayed in Isaiah. Christ is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Piety springs forth from the influence of Christ on our lives through the example he gives us of forgiveness in his life. Christ made a way in the desert. In wastelands he puts water for his chosen people to drink. Christ forms our piety that we might announce his praise to the world by the way we live our lives as a forgiving people. We study our lives to discover who we need to forgive. But we study our lives all the more to see whose forgiveness we need to ask for. Who have we condemned wrongly? Whose asking for forgiveness have we failed to respond to?
Action
By our goodness we gain Christ. Forgiveness belongs to the sufferings of Christ. What are the crosses of life that I run away from that if I take them up would allow me to be more a disciple of Christ? We have not yet attained to the maturity of Christ in us until we arrive at the Resurrection when we will become one with the Christ who calls us into his life and is the source of all forgiveness. There is no shortcut to the Resurrection. We have to be taken possession of by Christ. Forgiveness allows us to forget what lies behind and straining forward like Paul to what lies ahead, our forgiving actions continue our pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus. We pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive and we try to be a forgiving people that God may be free in the space of our forgiving to forgive us even more than we have been a forgiving people.
