Gospel Reflection 2021/2022

We are all broken, sinful and guilty people.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) once made a pastoral visit to a prison. And in his speech to the group of prisoners, he said this famous line, “The only difference between you and me is that you got caught.”

Startling but true! Each one of us – Archbishop Fulton Sheen included – is broken, sinful and guilty, in one way or another, at various degrees and levels. We are all adulterers: we are unfaithful to God, ourselves, our lives, our vocations, and our relationships… As Psalm 53: 6 laments, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way…” Archbishop’s message was clear and unambiguous, we are all broken, sinful and guilty people in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness!

Religious and moral hypocrisy.

On this 5^th Sunday of Lent, we hear of the Gospel account of ‘A Woman Caught in Adultery’. As St John narrates: the scribes and Pharisees, in their desperate attempt to trap Jesus, bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus to test Him. Quoting the Law of Moses, the scribes and Pharisees are eager to condemn and stone the woman to death.

Judge to condemn, to attack, to destroy, to punish, and to kill the other person.

Clearly, the scribes and Pharisees are not so much concerned as to uphold the Truth or the Law of Moses. Rather, their main intention and motivation is to kill two birds with one stone: to trap Jesus by condemning the woman. These religious and moral police prowl in the dark and pounce on people when they sin and fall. They do not walk the talk and they do not practice what they preach. The judgement that they pronounce and the justice that they uphold are defective: why is the woman condemned while the man who is equally guilty let off the hook?

Notice the mob: they are loud, rowdy, judgemental, intimidating and aggressive. Their inner motive is clear: to condemn, to attack, to destroy, to punish, and to kill the other persons – Jesus and the adulterous woman. They hate the Truth, i.e., Jesus, and therefore they want to kill Him, and the adulterous woman becomes part of the evil scheme.

Judge with truth and love.

Now, notice Jesus: He was cool, calm and composed – quiet yet uncompromising, gentle yet forceful.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has this to say [The CTS New Missal, 2012],

“… While His accusers are insistently accusing Him, Jesus bends down and starts writing with His finger on the ground. St Augustine notes that this gesture portrays Christ as the Divine Legislator: in fact, God wrote the Law with His finger on tablets of stone. Thus Jesus is the Legislator, He is Justice in person…”

In His silent action, Jesus reveals who He truly is when He starts writing on the ground – He is the Divine Legislator, and He is Justice in person.

Love does not throw stone; love sheds light.

“And what is His sentence? ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” continued Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “These words are full of the disarming power of truth that pulls down the wall of hypocrisy and opens consciences to a greater justice, that of love, in which consists the fulfilment of every precept.”

On the 3^rd Sunday of Lent, Jesus told us the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. He revealed to us that ‘the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’ [Ps 145: 8].

On the 4^th Sunday of Lent, Jesus told us the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He revealed to us that God is the merciful Father.

And on the 5^th Sunday of Lent, Jesus shows us IN ACTION that He is really and truly Justice and Mercy in person.

As shown by Jesus, the heart of judgement is not to condemn, to attack, to destroy, to punish, or to kill the other person. The heart of judgement must be of love.

As Christians, we must never shun away from judging what is right and what is wrong, but we must never judge to condemn, to attack, to destroy, to punish, or to kill the other person. Love does not throw stones; love sheds light. We must always judge what is right and what is wrong with the truth and love of Jesus Christ.

“Go away, and don’t sin any more.” [Jn 8: 11]

Our God is loving, merciful and forgiving. Whether we are like the adulterous woman or the religious and moral hypocrites, our Lord Jesus calls us to ‘go, and sin no more’. Jesus loves sinners, but He does not tolerate sin, whether it is the sin of adultery or the sin of hypocrisy. The truth and love of Jesus Christ must shed light in our darkened conscience and propel us to genuine repentance and continual conversion.

Let our fervent prayer be:

“Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me for I have sinned. Help me not to sin again.”

Let us also pray with and pray for Ukraine that:

“The weapons of war be silenced, the evil of the aggressors be stopped, and those who hold the fate of the world in their hands may spare us from the horror and madness of war.”