The angle dell'omiletica of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

SLEEPERS. DREAMERS FROM THE PROSTITUTE repentant, THROUGH THE WAY OF THE TRUE GOD MERCY OF CHRIST

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In confession Jesus, through the priest, He gives us His confidence. When we are acquitted, Also we return free from the spiritual chains that come from the sins committed. Once free, God puts his Father's merciful love in our hearts and calls us with confidence: goes and donalo. And even if we are weak, and despite the efforts we will fall back on other sins, we never stop to ask his forgiveness and to open ourselves to His confidence. In fact, the writer Ernest Hemingway said: "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust him".

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Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Dear brothers and sisters.

Movie poster Sleepers (1996)

the theme of sin and guilt that emerges on the page of the Gospel of this V Sunday of Lent [texts of the Liturgy of the Word, WHO], It is part of our faith and it is not always easy to talk about it properly or simply. The great medium of television presents a daily reality that not only, does not help to understand the sin, but that enhance their, sin as a lifestyle.

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More than two decades ago It was produced and distributed a film that maybe someone will remember: Sleepers. The cast is made up of first-rate actors: Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt e Jason Patric [cf. see card WHO]. In this film set in the popular quarters of Americans 1966, four teenagers perform a prank, just moved by the intention of committing a harmless prank, but it is likely to end in tragedy. This history: i quattro, near the stadium, flee with the cart of a salesman hot dogs, with which ever they come in front of the ramp of subway stairs; the cart escapes their hand and falls down the stairs, at the risk of killing an elderly man who was going up the ramp. The four were tried and sentenced to eighteen months in juvie.

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The whole plot is a tissue of violence and revenge, including sexual abuse of minors by several prison guards. As if this film wants to tell us from evil and guilt, you have no way out. Mistaken, instead. Our Lord teaches us how he loves sinners and helps them get out of their weaknesses. Starting in fact right from the first reading of this liturgy, read this prophetic song:

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"There, I will do a new thing: […] I will make the wilderness a highway, rivers in the desert " [Is 43, 19].

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by film Sleepers: The prank ends up touching the tragedy …

The Prophet He writes in the second exodus of the Babylonian captivity, the sixth century. a.C, When the Israelites were releasing oppression of Babylon. In these verses, God comforts the Jews and indicates a fertile desert road in the desert. Desert and steppe are places where donate its river, that is, his love alive and real. And all this we send something important: even before our behavioral weaknesses, that they seem to be sand dunes where we get lost, we must not be afraid to ask for the water of love of God. Defects whitewash the beauty of our uniqueness: We are not discouraged. On the contrary, in front of them let us trust in God with a spontaneous prayer too loud. Also God is with us not only in weaknesses, but also in the experience of falls or major sins.

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Sleepers, reformatory

In the passage of the adulteress we read that the Pharisees and scribes had tried to entrap Jesus with a dilemma, using for this purpose the technique of a rhetorical device that is typical in the hearings of criminal trials since the ancient greek and roman criminal law. The trap consists precisely in the response that is expected bystanders, namely that: if you say to stone the woman, go against your teaching of love. If you say not to stone her, go against the law of Moses and Roman law, that applied at the time in the Judean colony. Indeed, Rome while allowing the legitimacy of the rabbinical courts and the Great Sanhedrin on religious matters or related to the ancient Temple, if it was a question of issuing certain sentences, the power could be exercised - or the approved sentence carried out -, only by the Roman power, exactly as in the case of the execution of the death sentence of Jesus Christ.

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Faced with this question-trap, Jesus gives the answer in order to overcome the dilemma. The Pharisees can not apply the law of Moses with her. At this point the Lord Jesus can instead apply the teaching of Love:

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Sleepers, Robert DeNiro, in the role of pastor of four teenagers, during deposition in court

"Then Jesus stood up and said,: «Donna, where am I? Has no one condemned? […] Neither do I condemn; will’ and from now on sin no more " [GV 8, 10-11].

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We note: Jesus stands up and he brings forth his act of forgiveness: tender and tenacious love that woman. Not at all he says that adultery is a righteous act, understandable, acceptable, or to understand by virtue of trends or social costumes. That sin, It remains a grave sin. What matters to Jesus, Now you see in the eyes of the adulteress that true repentance: when he sees the repentant look, God welcomes the sinner in his divine heart, and accepting it destroys his sin. At that ponto Jesus speaks directly to women, which shows to be so desirous of love. Now she can also raise her and take her in his merciful heart. The Divine Redeemer, destroying that sin, He gave women the freedom to walk the path of God; and showing and giving confidence to the woman, He makes her a daughter repentant.

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Sleepers, Rober De Niro in the role of the good shepherd

So it is for us too: in confessing Jesus, through the priest, He gives us His confidence. When we are acquitted, Also we return free from the spiritual chains that come from the sins committed. Once free, God puts his Father's merciful love in our hearts and calls us with confidence: goes and donalo. And even if we are weak, and despite the efforts we will fall back on other sins, we never stop to ask his forgiveness and to open ourselves to His confidence. In fact, the writer Ernest Hemingway said: "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust him".

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The Lord give us the joy of his look full of confidence to be ourselves witnessing a greater hope.

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Amen!

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Rome, 7 April 2019

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Dear Readers,

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