Do You Love Me? (3rd Sunday Easter C)

Have you been seriously asked this question: “Do you love me?” When you are aware of the full implication of the commitment to love, this question is truly a daunting one.  Many find it a lot easier to be non-committal by responding, “perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.”

When I was making up my mind about getting ordained as a priest, I had to grapple with this question. And of course the question, in my particular context, is thrown by God.  I had to face the Lord in my prayer and give my courageous answer.  After all, the authenticity of following the Lord essentially rests on the love that binds one with him.  Today’s gospel episode (Jn 21:1-19) helped me arrive at a decisive affirmation of my vocation. Allow me to share my personal insights that emboldened me to say yes.  Two related insights: First, with the Risen Lord, there’s life; without Him, there’s emptiness.  Second, the Risen Lord fills up the abyss of our inadequacy in loving him.

A Life of Bounty.  Any sane person desires to live a bountiful life—a fruitful and meaningful life. We are all in search of this life. The gospel today reveals to us the secret path to such a life: It is only with the Lord’s direction that one can truly attain a fruitful life.

The gospel begins with the scene where Peter and those with him decided to go fishing— actually to go back to fishing, a life they had already left behind when they followed the Lord. Fishing was their expertise; they were good at that.  But that night, the whole night, they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, the Risen Lord was standing on the shore and directed them to cast their net over the right side of the boat. “So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish” (v. 6).

This incident reminds all of Jesus’ disciples, starting from Peter himself, that we cannot boast of our expertise, skills, talents and know-how. These do not guarantee that we can be truly fruitful in what we do in life. A “large catch,” a bountiful and meaningful life, can be achieved only when we humbly submit our expertise to the Lord’s directions.  Apart from Him our abilities may be disoriented, our life fruitless.

I met a businessman, for instance, in Makati. Despite his seeming success in his trade, he admitted of his emptiness. Not only that, his intoxication with his success was leading him to destroy his family! His own brand of success gave him more occasions to cheat his wife and robbed him of his time to be with his children. Fortunately, before he totally destroyed what really mattered in his life he came to his senses: He could not continue to do it his own way lest he would certainly lose everything. 

Sometimes, it is good to hit the rock bottom of our folly because it shakes off our arrogance. And only in that posture of humility that we can listen to God’s directions and eventually enjoy a truly blessed bountiful life.

Do I allow the Risen Lord to give directions to my life? Or do I stubbornly and arrogantly insist on doing things my old way even after the Lord has shown me the way? 

Do You Love Me? Anyone who wants to follow the Lord has to face this question squarely. This is the question I had to face myself. Do I love the Lord enough to be his ordained priest? Do I love the Lord more than I love myself? More than I love the significant persons in life? More than his created things?

An honest evaluation of ourselves will most likely render us incapable of giving a categorical yes. We love the Lord, but we know full well that our human heart is fickle, forgetful, unfaithful, and many times coward. While it is a total dishonesty to say no, to say yes seems to be a form of arrogance.

Towards the end of today’s gospel episode, Jesus confronts Peter with this hard question: “Do you love me more than these?” Peter has to answer this three times! The same number of times he has denied the Lord just before the crucifixion! What a grilling moment this is for Peter! But this is a moment of grace too. The triple question of the Master is to allow Peter to undo his triple denial with a triple profession of love. Such is the Lord’s graciousness.

Peter’s profession of love is no longer arrogant. There is so much humility in his answer when he says “Yes Lord; YOU KNOW that I love you.” I love you as you know me and my imperfect heart.

I find so much consolation in this realization that the Lord knows our heart. He knows its inadequacies in loving him. Yet He finds ways for us to come to terms with every moment of our imperfection in loving him. He fills up the abyss of our inadequacy to love. Simply put, He enables our incompetent heart to love him!

It is this love—a graced love-- that any follower of Jesus will have to carry with him/her in the journey towards the path of discipleship.  “Feed my sheep” is Jesus’ charge to anyone who braves to embrace the challenge of loving him.

On this third Sunday of Easter, we are invited by the Lord to answer bravely but with humility his question, “Do you love me?” We may be well aware of our inadequacies in loving the Lord. This serves us well because it humbles us. But let us be equally aware of God’s enabling grace allowing us to love him. Like Peter may we then say, “Yes Lord; YOU KNOW that I love you.”  As we fulfill our charge to serve in whatever capacity we are called to, let God’s directions always be our cue; then, trust that we are in for a great catch.

Easter Beatitude (2nd Sunday Easter C)

The gospel today (Jn 20:19-31) proclaims, as it were, the Easter beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (v. 29). Clearly this speaks of Christian believers who have not been eyewitnesses to the marvellous event of Jesus’ resurrection but have, nonetheless, demonstrated an unwavering faith in Him as Lord and God.  This speaks about us who, despite our many struggles in life and obstacles to the joy of believing in this increasingly secularized society, continue to live in faith and proclaim the goodness and mercy of God.

Today, the Divine Mercy Sunday is an invitation for us to put our trust in the infinite mercy of our loving God and experience the blessedness that the Lord has promised to those who believe in Him. Let us allow God’s mercy to lead us into the three significant interior movements that the disciples experienced as they encounter the Risen Lord in the gospel account today.

The movement from fear to joy.  The death of the Master on the cross on Good Friday sent the disciples to hiding. Out of fear, they holed up in a room afraid of a possible crack down on the followers of the crucified Messiah. Today’s gospel, however, recounts how Jesus dispels their fear by offering them his peace: “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ appearance throws away the paralysis caused by fear and, once again, enables them to rejoice in freedom. Then Jesus, after overcoming the obstacle of fear, sends them to the mission of proclaiming the gospel. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:12-16) tells us that the apostles become the adhesive force of the community, gaining respect from people, and attracting a great number of converts.  

What are my fears? Is it fear of rejection? Or of pain? Suffering? Persecution? When we live in fear, we back off and hide in order to protect ourselves from harm.  But the price of maintaining this false security is high. We lose the joy of spontaneity, the freedom to be sent and proclaim the love and mercy of God.  Hence, let us allow the Risen Lord to allay our fears and to lead us to the joyful conviction that God is always on our side.

The movement from guilt to the peace of forgiveness.  Another very likely disposition of the disciples following the horror of Good Friday is guilt. Judas’ guilt has led him to despair; and we can just imagine the angst of Peter for having denied the Lord three times!  Yet, Jesus greets them with the Easter gift of peace.  No mention of their betrayal and cowardice. And not only has he forgiven them, He makes them instruments of God’s forgiveness.  He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (v. 22-23).  Jesus empowers the apostles to overcome the anguish of guilt by forgiveness. Hereafter, the apostles and their successors will be Jesus’ representatives in the world to impart his peace by absolving the sins of those who repent.

What have I done that continues to haunt me and imprisons me? Or what have I failed to do for people I love and for God? Our guilt imprisons us. It can rob us of our peace of mind and continue to torment us. To experience the Easter beatitude, we need to allow the Risen Lord to grant us peace and experience that deep sense of being forgiven. Only when we accept the boundless mercy of God that we can truly live with the Easter happiness.

The movement from doubt to faith.  Another obstacle to Easter faith is doubt. The encounter between Jesus and Thomas in today’s gospel demonstrates how Jesus overcomes doubt. Jesus yields to Thomas’ obstinacy showing the latter the evidence he is looking for as a requirement for his belief. Thomas goes down in history as the doubting apostle; yet when we come to think of it, his skepticism saves us from our own doubts. Thomas has disproved any theories that suggest the resurrection as mere hallucination on the part of the apostles. He has seen the Risen Lord in his own eyes in the very terms he demanded. Hence, his proclamation of faith, “My Lord and my God!” can also be ours.  

Does the joy of believing manifest in my life? The societies we find ourselves in are subscribing more and more to secular philosophies which belittle and ignore the truth of our Christian faith. Many times, unawares we allow this worldview to be our own too as we face life and make decisions. This slowly jeopardizes our joyful witnessing to our faith. Like Thomas, let us allow the Risen Lord to come to us and overcome our lack of faith.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us come to Jesus, bringing with us our fears, our guilt, and our lack of faith but trusting in the transforming power of his mercy. Let us allow his infinite mercy to open the locked doors of our hiding place and invite us to come out into the open with joy instead of fear, with peace instead of guilt, with faith instead of unbelief. 

                                                           

Naligid na ang Dakung Bato (Sabado Gloria B)

NALIGID NA ANG DAKUNG BATO nga nagsira sa ganghaan sa lubnganan ni Jesus! Mao kini ang naabtan sa mga kababayen-an nga buot modihog og pahumot sa patayng lawas sa atong Ginoo sayo kaayo sa buntag sa Domingo (Mk. 16:1-7). Ug matud sa batan-ong lalaki nga naglingkod sa sulod sa lubnganan ug nasul-ob og taas nga puting sapot, wala na si Jesus didto—NABANHAW SIYA! Nalisang sila… kay wala pa sila makasabot.  Apan kita nga nakasabot…  mosinggit sa dakung kalipay… ALELUYA! BUHI ANG ATONG GINOO! ALELUYA!

Naligid na ang dakung bato… busa migitib na ang kahayag nga maoy naghingilin sa kangitngit. Kining gabhiona maoy “mother of all vigils.” Pagtukaw sa katawhan sa Dios nga nangandoy sa kaluwasan gikan sa kangitngit sa kasal-anan. Busa nagsugod ang atong liturhiya sa pagbendita sa kalayo ug pagdagkot sa kandila sa pasko nga nagsimbolo sa kahayag ni Kristo.

Ang kamatayon ni Kristo sa Krus maoy labing mangitngit nga samputanan sa kasal-anan sa tawo. Ang Biernes Santo daw kadaugan sa pwersa sa kangitngitan. Apan, sa ikatulong adlaw gikan sa iyang kamatayon, si Kristo midaug batok sa gahum sa sala ug kamatayon. Ang iyang pagkabanhaw usa ka mahimayaong kahayag nga mipapas sa kangitngit sa atong kasingkasing ug hunahuna. Si Kristo ang kahayag!

Mga igsoon, dinagkutan ang atong kandila misulod kita sa Simbahan kay kita nakaambit man sa kahayag ni Kristo. Karong gabhiona, gihinunduman ta nga dili na kita katawhan nga nagtago nga mahadlokon sa kangitngit. Kita nahimo na nga mga anak sa kahayag… katawhan sa kahayag… pinaagi ni Kristo. Busa magpuyo kita sa kahayag. Talikdan ta ang tanang mga anino sa pagpakasala ug pasudlon ta sa atong kasingkasing ang kahayag ni Kristo.

Naligid na ang dakung bato… busa paminawon ta ang kasaysayan sa katumanan sa saad sa Dios. Ang dakung laraw sa Dios mao man ang pagdala sa kaluwasan alang sa katawhan nga napukan. Niining gabii sa pagtukaw, taas ang mga basahon kay kini nagsaysay sa katingalahang buhat sa Dios diha sa pagpangluwas. Naminaw kita, una sa tanan, sa istorya sa pagbuhat sa Dios sa kalibutan, sa istorya sa sakripisyo ni Abraham ug ang saad sa Dios ngadto kaniya nga amahan sa pagtoo; naminaw kita sa makahingangha nga sugilanon sa kalingkawasan  sa katawhang Israel gikan sa kaulipnan sa Ehipto. Ug nagpadayon ang atong pagpaminaw sa istorya sa pag-atiman sa Dios sa iyang katawhang masupilon ug sa iyang saad sa kaluwasan pinaagi sa mga propeta.

Ug labaw sa tanan, niining gabhiona, gipaminaw ta ang katumanan niining tanang saad ug laraw sa Dios sa pagpangluwas! Si Kristo nga atong manluluwas nga namatay sa Krus nabanhaw gikan sa mga minatay! Naligid na ang dakung bato nga mitabon sa ganghaan sa lubnganan ni Jesus! Nalugti na ang tanikala sa kaulipnan sa sala. Ang katawhan nga giluwas sa Dios diha ni Kristo gawasnon na. Ang kamatayon gibuntog ni Jesus; wala nay gahom ang kamatayon kaniya (Rom 6:9). Busa ang katawhan sa Dios angay nga magmaya diha sa gasa sa kinabuhing dayon!  ALELUYA!

Mga igsoon, ang Dios matinumanon sa iyang saad. Matinud-anon ba kita ngadto kaniya? Hinumduman ta kanunay ug baliklantawon nato ang kaayo sa Dios nganhi kanato. Daygon ta’g pasalamatan Siya.

Naligid na ang dakung bato… busa nabuntog na ang kamatayon ug diha sa bunyag magkawos kita sa tubig sa kinabuhing dayon. Niining gabhiona sa pagtukaw, dinagkotan ang mga kandila, bag-ohon ta ang atong mga panumpa sa atong bunyag. Ug lagmit aduna kita’y giandam nga mga kaigsoonan nga pagabunyagan. Gipahinumduman kita niining liturhiya sa pinakadakung gasa nga atong nadawat tungod sa pagpangluwas sa Dios pinaagi ni Kristo—ug kini ang gasa sa bag-ong kinabuhi.

Diha sa bunyag nahiusa kita sa kamatayon ni Kristo; ug tungod niini mabanhaw pud kita uban kaniya. Diha sa ikaduhang basahon (Rm 6:3-11), tataw ang pagpasabot ni San Pablo: “Nasayod kamo nga sa pagbunyag kanato nahiusa kita kang Kristo Jesus, ug busa nahiusa kita sa iyang kamatayon? Tungod niini, sa pagbunyag kanato gilubong kita uban kaniya ug miambit sa iyang kamatayon, aron ingon nga si Kristo gibanhaw sa mahimayaong gahom sa Amahan, kita usab magpuyo diha sa bag-ong kinabuhi” (v.3-4).

Bag-ong kinabuhi! Wala nay mas dakung gasa kaysa niini. Ang daan tang kinabuhi sa pagpakasala patay na hiniusa sa kamatayon ni Kristo. Buhi kita karon tungod ni Kristo ug kining atong kinabuhi dili na alang sa pagpakasala kondili alang sa Dios.

Mga igsoon, sublion ta ang atong mga panaad diha sa bunyag nga puno sa pagpasalamat. Pangayoon ta usab ang grasya nga atong maampingan ang kahamili sa atong bag-ong kinabuhi diha sa bunyag. Talikdan ta ang pagpakasala ug magkinabuhi kita nga makapahimuot sa atong mahigugmaong Dios nga nagluwas kanato.

Naligid na ang dakung bato busa wagtangon ta’ng kalisang, puy-an ta nga malipayon ang kabag-o sa kinabuhing kristohanon ug manlakaw kita nga maisogong nagasugilon sa Maayong Balita---ALELUYA! BUHI ANG ATONG GINOO! ALELUYA!

THE SEVEN LAST WORDS for quiet reflection and personal prayer

For those who prefer to stay home on Good Friday, you can deepen your experience of Holy Week and prepare for a joyful Easter celebration by spending quiet moments reflecting on the last words of Jesus discerning their message for you.

PREPARATION: Find a place where you can be alone, quiet, and comfortable. It would be helpful to have a crucifix that you can contemplate on. Bring your journal should you wish to write down the fruits of your reflection. Take time to reflect and pray over each of the seven last words of our dear Lord. You may linger and stay where you feel the Lord is speaking to you deeply. Feel free to respond to the Lord expressing whatever is in your heart.

1. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). Jesus is falsely accused, convicted unfairly and tortured brutally but still He sees and understands his persecutors’ ignorance and intercedes to the Father for their forgiveness.  In his suffering, Jesus offers forgiveness… not vengeance… nor hatred.

Have you been unjustly treated? Can you get past this injustice you might have endured? With God’s grace, would you be happier if you could set your heart free by offering forgiveness as Jesus did? Are there people in your life to whom you need to offer forgiveness? Or from whom you need to seek forgiveness?  

2. “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). These are words of salvation Jesus speaks to one of the thieves being crucified. He is said to be the “Good Thief” because, after acknowledging his guilt, he turns to Jesus and humbly implores that he be remembered when Jesus comes into his kingdom. And Jesus, indeed, guarantees his and OUR salvation.

When you gaze at the cross of Jesus, are you ready to admit the guilt of your own sinfulness? Do you feel Jesus’s invitation to entrust to Him your brokenness? What sinful situation in your life right now you might want to ask Jesus to save you from?  What would you like to say to Jesus? Express your gratitude to the Lord for assuring you a place in His Kingdom.

3. “Woman, behold, your son. … Behold, your mother.” (John 19:26–27). As Jesus approaches his death, He thinks of Mary, his beloved Mother, and how she would be taken care of without Him. Here, Jesus entrusts Mary to “the disciple whom he loved.”

Who is Mary to you? What role does Mary play in your life? Do you express loving concern for your own mother? Or aging parents? Do you have close friends who are like a member of your family just like the beloved disciple? Would you like to write how you feel about them and how you appreciate their presence in your life?

4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Mark 15:34). Jesus cries out in anguish from the cross. He feels alone approaching his death. He is abandoned by most of his friends. The beloved Father too seems to be distant and tolerant of all the evil done to him.

Do you think God had abandoned his beloved Son? Have there been difficult moments in your life when you asked, “Where is God?” Have you ever felt abandoned by family, friends or even God? Do you trust God’s love despite His seeming silence in some difficult times in your life?

5. “I thirst.” (John 19:28). Jesus, after having been whipped, crowned with thorns and nailed to the cross expresses a human need. He thirsts. He, the source of living water, thirsts! To quench his thirst, Jesus is offered a sponge soaked in sour wine.

Don’t you ever feel that Jesus thirst is not for water but for your love? Your loyalty? For justice? For peace? For the healing of creation? In life, what are you thirsting for? Do you thirst spiritually for Jesus, the Living Water? Have there been moments when you cried out in distress? Were there people who gave you a helping hand?

6. “It is finished.” (John 19:30). These three words of Jesus express the fulfilment of God’s promises to his people. Jesus has accomplished his mission as the promised Savior of humankind. He now declares victory over sin and death.

Jesus had been resolute in doing the Father’s will. His life and death had a special purpose in God’s plan of salvation.  What is your life’s purpose? Would you write your own vision (who you are called to become) and mission (what are you called to do)?  Where are you in fulfilling God’s purpose in your life? Are there moments of victories?

7. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46). These words summarize how Jesus lived—in humble surrender to the Father’s will. Here, again, He entrusts everything, His spirit to the Father, as He dies broken, humiliated, and abandoned. In this most despicable state, Jesus expresses His total trust in his unity with the Father.

Do you trust God so as to let go of your controls in life? Have there been some dark moments in your life, beyond your understanding, when you felt there’s nothing to hold on to but your faith in God? Have you ever doubted the abiding presence of the Father?

REVIEW:  Review the fruits of each meditation and discern how they all fit together as God’s invitation for you in life. Notice how Jesus’ suffering and death strengthen your faith, hope, and love amid your own struggles in some dark hours in life nudging you to move on with the joyful disposition of Easter.

CONVERSATION WITH THE LORD:  End with a heart to heart talk with the Lord. Express your gratitude, your love, your commitment to Him who laid down his life for you. GOD BLESS YOU!

In God’s Loving Hands (Passion Sunday C)

There is a seeming contradiction within the liturgical celebration today. On the one hand, we start by re-enacting with joyous chants and with palms on our hands Jesus’ triumphant entry to Jerusalem. The reading before the procession (Lk 19:28-40) reminds us of the joyful welcome accorded to Jesus by his disciples as he entered Jerusalem. Surely they welcomed him as a king. They chanted thus: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest” (v.38). Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem highlights his kingship. The mood is that of rejoicing and victory.

On the other hand, we later proceed in a sorrowful recounting of the crucifixion as a criminal of the same Jesus we hail as a king. “Crucify him! Crucify him!” This echoes disturbingly as the passion narrative goes on. And we listen to the account of Jesus giving up his last breath. The mood is, needless to say, sorrowful.

This seeming contradiction, I submit, is an excellent backdrop against which we can appreciate both Jesus’ resolve in turning down the people’s false expectations of him as a messiah and his unwavering trust in and submission only to the will of his Father.

We recall that the Lenten season begun with the readings on the temptations of Jesus in the desert (First Sunday of Lent). It is helpful to notice that truly the tempter haunted Jesus until his last moments. Towards the end of the passion narrative just before Jesus gave up his last breath, he would face his final temptation. Notice how similar is the test with that of the desert event: “Let him save himself, if he is the Messiah of God, the chosen one.” And “If you are the king of Jews, save yourself.” Finally, “aren’t you the Messiah? Then save yourself and us.”

The people, the soldier, and the criminal hanging on the cross challenge him to display his power. The challenge to save himself means to prove to the world that He is the one they have expected to come. The people’s joy on his entry to Jerusalem is laden with such expectations of a powerful messiah who will put an end to their oppression. If Jesus sees himself according to this expectation, then dying on the cross is out of the question; for dying means suffering the utter humiliation of defeat and meaninglessness. Indeed this is Jesus’ greatest temptation: To listen to the people’s challenge to save and prove himself; but in doing so, he will have to turn his back to the Father. His final temptation is to escape his death as it seems to lead to meaninglessness and to put things into his own hands.

But again Jesus’ total submission to the will of the Father prevails. Just before he expires, Jesus prays to the Father with so much trust in his love and fidelity: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Here Jesus has shown us that, even in the face of seeming meaninglessness and utter defeat, he has faith in the wisdom of the Father. In the depth of his passion and the unfathomable mystery of his own death, he believes in the love of his Father. He trusts that in the loving hands of his Father everything will turn out fine.

We know, of course from the vantage point of Easter, that Jesus is vindicated. But to go through the experience of suffering and uncertainty of Lent is essential for the development of our capacity to trust in God’s love and fidelity. We are always tempted to put matters into our own hands. We desire so much to end the suffering around us as to be tempted to do it in our own terms and solutions. Oftentimes we tend to put our trust in our own plans and schemes oblivious of what God truly wills.

On this Passion Sunday, Jesus teaches us to always have in our hearts the same unwavering trust He has in the Father’s love and fidelity. When we are suffering and we don’t fully understand what’s happening, when much of our plans are not working and expectations remain unfulfilled, when things simply go beyond our control, it may be an invitation to seek the will of the God and place our trust into his loving hands.

Father, I am superficial. I don’t see beyond what meets the eye. I don’t always understand your ways. Grant me then the grace to trust in you always and submit things into your loving hands. Amen.

Lest We Cast a Stone (5th Sunday Lent C)

 

In his exhortation during the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis emphasized that all the faithful must contemplate the face of God's mercy and take the season of Lent as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy.

Jesus is the face of God's mercy. To contemplate on God's mercy, we need, then, to fix our eyes on Jesus. Let us do just that as we treat the gospel reading for today.

Today’s gospel reading (Jn 8:1-11) recounts the case of a woman caught in adultery. Her case is presented by the Scribes and Pharisees to test Jesus. If Jesus condemns her according to the Law of Moses, i.e. by stoning to death, he frustrates those who hope in his compassion and runs in conflict with the Roman law that has suspended the Jewish authorization to inflict capital punishment. If he pardons her, he can be accused of making light of the Law and lose his credibility before the people. But Jesus always outwits his malicious opponents. He manages to rise above the ploy to trap him and, what more, turns the occasion into one that instructs and teaches about the loving ways of God.

I suggest two things to consider for our reflection: First, Jesus’ invitation to self-examination and, second, his teaching on abhorring sin but loving the sinner.

Invitation to Self-examination. When the Scribes and Pharisees press him to give his position on the case, Jesus responds by saying, “let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). Far from condemning the woman to death, Jesus instead invites the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees to examine themselves first. The gospel recounts how each one goes away starting with the elders unable to cast the first stone. 

When we examine ourselves, we begin to realize how much the power of sin has affected us too. We begin to see that we are in an unfortunate solidarity with the sinners. We stop pointing an accusing finger on other people and admit that we also share in the sins of humanity. We begin to see the utter hypocrisy of casting the stone on others and to realize that like anyone else what we need is not legalistic impersonal judgment but mercy and compassion.

In this season of Lent, let us honestly and courageously look into our own sinfulness and approach God not in the self-righteous stance of the Scribes and Pharisees but in the utter dependence of the adulterous woman on the mercy of God.

Abhorring Sin but Loving the Sinner. Just like the message of the Parable of the Lost Son, today’s gospel teaches us about God’s unconditional love for us sinners. As far as God is concerned, we continue to be his sons and daughters despite our sinfulness. Today’s gospel illustrates how slow God is in condemning us and quick in giving us a fresh start. His words, “Neither do I condemn you” (v. 11), express Jesus’ willingness to give the sinful woman a chance, a new lease on life. God does not give up on us easily. His love and mercy always triumph over the power of sin that wants to destroy us. God’s love and mercy recreates us to become once again his beautiful children.

“Go; from now on do not sin anymore” (v. 11). Jesus is also clear about abhorring sin. Part of the gift of new life is the commitment of rejecting sin. Our encounter with Jesus brings new life and our experience of his compassion empowers us all the more to abhor the scandal of sin. We are God’s children; we are destined to live in grace. Sin is a despicable deception whose sole objective is to mislead and destroy.

Hence, the season of Lent is a good time to express our indignation to sin... to our sins... and to live in the grace of God’s mercy. 

This reflection does not in any way wish to abolish our legal and justice systems. They are necessary for social order. We have to be aware though that they can be flawed. The message of today’s gospel is that we move away from vindictive system that casts the stones out of lust for vengeance and conceit of self-righteousness. We move towards restorative system that allows for renewal and the chance to mend what has been broken by sin. Let us not allow sin to have the last laugh. It is God’s love that recreates, God’s mercy that restores.

Lord, break the shield of my self-righteousness lest I cast a stone on others; allow your mercy to expose the despicable deception of my sins that I may abhor them and hope for your promise of new life. Amen.