Fifth Sunday of Lent
In that powerful gospel whom
do you feel most sorry for? The woman
being publicly humiliated? Maybe Jesus
because He was being pressured by the crowd?
Maybe the religious leaders themselves for stooping so low?
As we listen to the gospel
have you ever felt tried and convicted by a crowd? Perhaps when you were not accepted as part of
the “in” crowd at school? Maybe when you
didn’t make the team? Maybe you felt you
weren’t pretty enough, or handsome enough, or talented enough? Perhaps when you were turned down for a job
promotion? Or maybe when you stood up
for your faith and for what was right and were ridiculed?
When did you come truly to
believe that Jesus values you as a person?
When you were confirmed? When you
felt fully understood or when you
perhaps fully understood what He did for you by His death for you on the cross? Maybe when you felt Jesus’ healing
forgiveness during a very difficult time?
Maybe when you discovered acceptance by a few close friends or even
family members who know some of your most innermost secrets and still held them
very sacred and accepted you?
Jesus said to the woman,
“Neither do I condemn you. Go and from
now on do not sin any more.” How do you
feel when Jesus says those words to you tonight? Do you have a guilt trip? I’ve been very bad and I’m ashamed of you
Lord. Or do you feel acquitted? You did nothing wrong. Maybe you feel a warning in those words. I’ll let you off this time but don’t do it
again. Maybe you feel encouraged. You are such a beautiful person and you don’t
have to live like you used to, sin no more.
Or maybe you feel challenged, this evidence of forgiveness is a change
in your life.
What do you and I do when we
feel we have blown it? Crawl into a
hole? Confess it to God and then move
forward? Maybe we confess it to another
person or someone we confide in. Do we
try to be extra good or do we just shrug it off?
If tonight right in the
midst of this Eucharist the woman in the gospel came and stood before you and
me at this Mass how do you think she would feel? Uncomfortable? Convicted?
Weird? Or would she feel right at
home?
Could you actually pick up a
stone like this and throw it at someone else?
“Let the one among you who has no sin be the first to throw a
stone.” Anyone?