THE HOLY GOSPEL OF THIS SUNDAY REMINDERS US THAT WE ARE A LITTLE ALL OF TRAITORS AND ADULTERS

 

"An infinity of passions can be contained in a minute like a crowd in a small space"

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Dear Readers of The Island of Patmos,

The Holy Gospel of this fifth Sunday of the season of Lent puts us before a dimension of darkness and light. On one side, a story of betrayal and adultery. On the other, the great love and welcome of Jesus for those who are repentant.

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A little’ traitors and adulterers we all are, every time we sin out of weakness. We have a bitter absinthe to assimilate: we are sinners and tend to be fragile. We easily break up a bit’ to be carried away by passions, from affection, with anger, from rash judgment. Or as Gustave Flaubert writes in Madame Bovary:

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"An infinity of passions can be contained in a minute like a crowd in a small space".

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Pror for this very reason, we are loved more by the Lord who helps us recognize our sins and welcomes our forgiveness. Today, the gospel story tells us about the adulterous episode. The text tells us that it is early morning in the Temple. Jesus is there to teach after he had been on the Mount of Olives, plausibly in prayer. Scribes and Pharisees then try to set a trap for the Lord. Called an adulterous woman they ask Jesus:

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«”Maestro, this woman was caught in adultery. now Moses, in the Law, He commanded us to stone such women. What do you think?”. They said this to test him and to have reason to accuse him ".

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Jesus was being tested, closed in a dialectical trap: if in fact he had replied not to stone the woman, he would have explicitly said to disobey and therefore not to be consistent with the Mosaic law, of which Jesus himself had said he was a follower. But if he replied to stone her, scribes and Pharisees could have accused him of not being consistent with his teaching on love. In both cases, it was easy to accuse the Lord of inconsistency and discredit him.

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Test the Lord it is also the temptation of today's culture, for this the severe warning resounds more than ever: “It has been said: You will not tempt the Lord your God " [LC 4, 12]. It is easy to accuse always and in any case of inconsistency, of little witness and truthfulness the Church and the Catholics. In fact, it is easy to pretend that others are perfect, while we can afford any action. Here then is that Jesus, to the trap of Pharisaic perfectionism, responds with skill:

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"Which one of you is without sin, be the first to throw the stone at her ".

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An excellent answer. Able to synthesize human nature. Above all it is an answer for us: no one is without sin. No one can judge, let alone condemn another. We can judge and condemn the actions of another, but without ever establishing that our sinful brother is permanently lost. This we can also refer to the wrongs we have done, to sins committed towards others. But above all to the sins that others have worked towards us. Remind us of how much the one who has hurt us is a sinful and fragile person. This is why we can make the Lord's words our own:

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«Donna, where am I? Has no one condemned?» […] I don't condemn you either; go and from now on don't sin anymore ".

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This is the central teaching: the Lord came to try to make us overcome the hidden form of Pharisaic perfectionism. Being Catholic does not mean that you are already perfect and holy by now, but continually strive for this perfection and holiness. E, when we are wrong, we can do nothing but entrust ourselves to the Lord. Because He gives us the grace and all the help necessary to avoid sinning.

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We ask the Lord to grow in humility and in the acceptance of oneself, to welcome grace and spread the teaching of forgiveness in charity throughout the world.

Amen.

 

Rome, 2 April 2022

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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