Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our Lord has been great with us, and we are overjoyed to see this happen in our lives. Why are you happy and what does the greatness of the Lord mean? It means that he has been greater than our sins, much greater than our sins. His mercy has been overwhelming and therefore he has been wonderful to us. When we say this, it does not mean that God does everything I want, which is what naturally religious people want. He has been great with us, which means he continues to love you and will always love you. He has to have a very great love because you are such a little thing. Today the Lord loves you so this means he is greater than our weaknesses, greater than our sins and we can see this in today’s amazing gospel.
This Lent has been a Lent of mercy. All the gospels reveal this experience of mercy, and you are able to touch it even in your own life. This woman they say is caught committing adultery and the law says she should be stoned. Nothing happens to the man in this chauvinistic culture, but the woman is stoned. This is an important test because Jesus said numerous times that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. They are always looking to trap Jesus. But Jesus says, no, you are wrong; the woman should not be stoned. His mercy touches them. What do we deserve because of our sins you? Perhaps, to be stoned to death or thrown into prison or dead or still not married or without kids, because God has given you children, and you abort them.
Christ appeals to their mercy, and this is wonderful because starting with the elders they all leave. Since they lived longer, they committed more sins. Perhaps the older ones experienced the mercy of the Lord, since as we age, we often become more merciful. The eldest start leaving and it continues down to the youngest. How wonderful! The Lord then says, he who is without sin can cast the first stone. Then the rest of you can throw all the stones you want, but the first one to throw must be he who has no sin. Who is the one who has no sin? Only Jesus Christ and he doesn’t throw it because he loves you. He has mercy for you.
Jesus says to her, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” It is a precious word. From this gospel we can see that we have already started the Easter proclamation: Oh, happy fault, that deserved so great a savior, as will be done in the Easter Exultet. So great a savior is the Son of God. If it were not for the fact that this woman committed a flagrant adultery, she would not have known Jesus Christ. They put her in the middle and made her stand in front of Christ. Why did she get such a special place? It was because of her sin, not because she was a good one.
This breaks our moralistic way of thinking that often dwells in us and destroys real faith. It is the enemy of faith. We must be good if the Lord is to love us. God will love me because I am good. We think we can meet the Lord if we are good. But this gospel says the opposite. What puts you in front of the mercy of the Lord? Your sins, your sins, not your strengths. Lent is coming to an end and hopefully our moralism is ending and so is your slavery, your poverty, your weaknesses. God looked upon the most enslaved people of the world, like you and I today. Today you see your slavery, your suffering, your rottenness when you are away from the Father like we saw last week in the parable of the man with two sons. You are an adulterer also and this puts you in God’s love.
The second reading is a jewel that many priests put on their ordination cards. St. Paul says, “I suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” It is a wonderful passage in the letter to the Philippians because he considers everything to be garbage in order to win Christ. I consider everything to be worthless, everything, everything, the family, the children, the money, the affections, my reputation, my job, beauty, vanity, power; it is all garbage compared to being with Christ. How is Christ won over? This woman earned it. He was won over by her. She gained Christ because Christ has been won over by her. Just as the father won over the son in last week’s gospel. He won over the son with his mercy and the son regained his father and so was this woman won over by Christ’s mercy.
I consider it as so much rubbish because I wanted to gain Christ. For the sake of winning Christ, I run forward to the prize which God calls you to. And what is that prize? Eternal life. This is the crown, this is happiness, that you are a Christian. The prize is that you can love, and you can be happy. You still think that you will be happy only when your spouse changes or when your children behave or when the other one is different. But the prize is to be in the Promised Land this Easter. There are already signs of Easter. The mercy, compassion, tenderness of the Lord in today’s readings; it is amazing.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has been great with us. It seemed like a dream when the fate of the century changed because a Christian who has met Christ is filled with joy knowing Christ’s love and mercy; this transforms your family. The presence of only one person with faith changes the house, even if the others never go to Mass. If there is one person who is humble, he can be Christ in that house and make present the love of the Lord. If one fiancé has Christ it is enough for both of them to live in chastity. If both do not have Christ, then they will act like silly fools that seek each other’s pleasure.
If one is Christ in the office, he can fix the chaos by allowing himself to be killed. If one has Christ, he can love the others because he has been loved by Him. This is the mission of a Christian: to be salt and leaven and therefore make Christ present among us. Since Christ already lives in him, he brings light and leaven and he can say, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.