The forgiveness of God
is one thing, but the proof that we want that forgiveness is the energy we
expend to make amends for the wrong.
Fulton J. Sheen Thoughts for Daily Living (1955) 106–7
What a week it has been.
And yet we live in a world where the colour and age of the new Pope’s shoes is
deemed as newsworthy. We should realise that such things do not matter.
There are far more important things to worry about.
In this morning’s Gospel we see a woman caught in the act
of adultery. By the law of Moses she should be stoned to death. But Jesus shows
the world another way – it is the way of love and not of judgement. Every
single one of us sins: we say, and think, and do things which we should not,
which separate us from God and our neighbour. But instead of condemning humanity,
God in Christ loves us and gives himself for us. He suffers and dies and rises
again to show us the way of love. He gives us his word and feeds us with his
body and blood so that we can share in his divine life, so that we can have a
hope of heaven.
Rather than condemning the woman, Jesus challenges those
around him: ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first
to throw a stone at her’ rather than judging others we need to
look at ourselves and recognise that we too are sinners. It should force us to take a long, hard look
at ourselves – at our lives, and recognise that we need to conform ourselves to
Christ – to live, and think, and speak like him. We need to be nourished by
him, healed and restored by him, to live lives which proclaim his love and his
truth to the world, living out our faith in our lives so that the world may
believe.
Once the people had gone ‘Jesus stood up and
said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”’ We are loved, healed and restored by God,
but with that comes a challenge: as Christians we are to turn away from sin. We
are challenged to turn away from the ways of sin, the ways of the world, to
find life in him, the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is
from God and based on faith. We need to ‘know him and the
power of his resurrection, and ... share his sufferings, becoming like him in
his death’.
This is what we are trying to do in Lent, preparing
our souls and our lives so that we celebrate his death and resurrection and our
reconciliation with God. It is done so that his grace may perfect our nature
and fit us for heaven, sharing the divine life of love, through a conscious
turning away from the ways of the world, of sin, and of death: losing our lives
to find them in him. It’s difficult. St Paul in his Letter to the Philippians
didn’t find it easy, nor should we. Just because living the life of faith is
something difficult doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. We will fail, but our
failure is not necessarily a problem. What matters is that we keep trying,
together: supporting, loving and forgiving each other to live a life of love,
so that the world may believe. Let us recognise our human sin and weakness so that we can turn away
from it. We are to transform the whole world and everyone in it, so that they
may have live and life in all its fullness. We are fed by the word of God and
by the sacrament of His Body and Blood to be strengthened, to share in His
divine life, to fit us for Heaven, and to transform all of creation that it may
resound his praise and share in his life of the Resurrection, washed in His
Blood and the saving waters of Baptism: forgiven and forgiving so that all that
we say, or think, or do, all that we are may be for the praise of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most
right and just, all might, majesty, glory dominion and power, now and forever
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