Sunday, March 25, 2007

Reflection on the Fifth Sunday of Lent

The story of the woman caught in adultery is a powerful story on which to reflect, especially in light of vocations. The unknown woman, 'caught in the very act of adultery', is brought before Jesus for his judgment. The Pharisees and scribes are setting a trap - is Jesus going to dismiss her to continue on her way (a misguided notion of Mercy), or is he going to consent in her death (an equally misguided notion of Justice, after all, the man was also guilty).

Jesus begins writing on the ground with his finger - what he wrote no one knows, but perhaps this does not matter. He was writing just as the Father did when He inscribed the Law on the stone tablets on Sinai. Jesus was writing a new law, tempered in love. He states simply that the one without sin is the one who is to carry out the sentence. He returns to his scribbling. All walk away, leaving the woman. Jesus does not simply dismiss her, but calls her to conversion, to sin no more. He, who is all holy and sinless, could have carried out the sentence, but calls her to repentance.

Many young men, feeling the call, allow the condemnation that results from their sins to forbid them from responding. But in the same way, Jesus invites us to trust in his mercy, to seek forgiveness of our sins and the grace to go forward. As so many have said and repeated, there is no saint without a past, and no sinner without a future. Our sins are never as great as God's mercy, and if we are willing to seek forgiveness and sin no more, we can go on, to respond to God's grace freely.

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