“…forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what
lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward
calling, in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13:14)
She stood there.
Waiting for judgment. Waiting for death.
She never could have expected that she would walk away from what was
supposed to be her execution to a new life overflowing with the mercy of
God. What possessed these men to bring that
woman caught in adultery to Jesus? Why were they so bloodthirsty? They really didn’t care about her or what she
had done. All they wanted to do was trap
the Lord. But what if it had been one of
us? How many of us have often felt like
this woman when we have sinned? Alone,
desperate, abandoned, judged, condemned.
I count myself in this as well.
Why is it that we don’t trust in the mercy of God as much as we
should? These men come to distort the
law before the very Author of the law.
The law was not given to us to condemn, but to bring us closer to
God. How are their actions bringing this
woman any closer to God? This is a
corruption of the law, which is why Jesus disarms them when he says: “Let the
one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” We are not without sin. We cannot condemn. This is the point that Jesus makes to the
woman when they are alone.
This also happens in the confessional. It is just Jesus and
us. Yes, the priest is acting in the
person of Christ, but he is not there to condemn. He is there to dispense Divine Mercy. He is there to unshackle us from the chains
and burden of sin and to tell us the same words that Jesus tells the woman at
the end of the gospel: “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” We go from desperation to salvation. From lost to found. From death to life. Much like the prodigal son in last week’s
gospel. This woman, who was probably
certain she was going to die, was given new life by Jesus. Not just any life. A life filled with God’s mercy. A life filled with infinite possibilities for
peace and happiness with God walking by her side. Everything else in her life now seemed
trivial because she was born again that day.
The words of St. Paul in the second reading could very well
be the words of this woman when the apostle says that he considers everything a
loss because of the supreme good of knowing Jesus. St. Paul had serious sin as well. He had the blood of martyrs on his hands,
which made his story of forgiveness and redemption and encounter with the Lord
just as extraordinary as the one we hear about in today’s gospel. Paul considers everything else rubbish
because Jesus has forgiven him, because Jesus gave him new life, new
purpose. Paul goes from persecuting Christians
to being persecuted himself, but this does not concern him because Christ is at
his side. The Lord rescued him as he
rescued the woman. There is a verse that
we repeat in the Liturgy of Hours during the Lenten season that comes to mind:
“God himself will set me free from the hunter’s snare. From those who would trap me with lying
words…and from the hunter’s snare.” From
whomever or whatever is oppressing us, God will come to our rescue to grant us
forgiveness and new life.
Yet something is always holding us back. We don’t want to take the next step that for
many is making a good confession this Lent.
What is it that prevents us from feeling liberating like this woman? Towards the end of the second reading, Paul
writes: “…forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in
Christ Jesus.” Still, the sins of our past, the sins we have confessed still
shackle us, still hold us back. Do we
not realize that when we go to confession it is as if we write down our sins on
a paper that God shreds into pieces? If
God forgives and forget, why can’t we? The hopefully soon to be saint, Cardinal
Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, preached during the Lenten Retreat to St. John
Paul II and the Roman Curia some 16 years ago that “Jesus has a terrible
memory.” And aren’t we better for it?
Yet we still hold on to those sins like someone desperate to paste together all
those pieces of paper that were our sins that the Lord has ripped up and thrown
to the wind. We need to “forget what
lies behind.” Salvation is not found
there. Paul is correct in telling us
that we must “strain forward to what lies ahead” with our ultimate goal being a
life totally dedicated to service to Jesus with everything else counting as a
loss. St. Paul and this woman found a
new life in Christ, but first they had to accept the forgiveness that was being
offered to them. We must let go of past hurts.
If Jesus forgets our sins, why can’t we?
