Weekend Reflections for 4/5/19

Forgiving Love

Sunday’s Gospel is the story of the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees bring her to Jesus and make her stand in the middle of the crowd to shame her publicly and debate her punishment. She is filled with fear and humiliation. The temple authorities are testing Jesus to see if he will follow the law and condemn her to death by stoning, but he knows their hypocrisy and refuses to play along. He simply doodles in the dirt. I often tell retreatants that our sins are written in sand at the seashore and are erased by every wave of God’s love. The good we do is written in stone and that lasts forever and when God looks at us, He sees only what’s in the stone. Our God forgives and forgets and by human standards that’s always too good to be true but we believe it is.

After the crowd disperses and her accusers leave, Jesus says to the woman,

“Neither do I condemn you.” Like the father of the prodigal son Jesus never judges, shames or excludes anyone who comes to him. As he hangs on the cross Jesus forgives the repentant thief and asks the Father to forgive those who are responsible for his crucifixion. In his death Jesus perfectly reveals the Father to be Forgiving Love. We ask for the grace to accept and imitate Jesus’ forgiveness of others.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.