Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We’re at the door of Easter, one week from Palm Sunday, and we have an opportunity to understand and dismantle a little bit the tendency to be moralistic, legalistic. We think that to be a Christian means to be good. There are many people who don’t believe in God who are much better than us. There are many atheists who are more generous than us, who help the poor more than us. To be a Christian means to have an encounter with Christ. It is not about being good or worthy, none of us are.
We have a wonderful example of the woman in the gospel today. She wasn’t looking for Jesus Christ, nor was she repentant or trying to break with her sin. What brought her to Christ? It was sin. Hopefully this helps us to break up a bit this moralism that we all fall into that Christ only loves the good ones. Last week what brought the prodigal son back to his father? It was his sin. His desperation to even eat what the pigs were eating.
The Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus Christ. They want to stone the woman and also stone Jesus. This was possible if he denied the importance of the law of Moses; they would stone him to death. But he gives a brilliant answer, a stupendous answer. The one without sin can throw the first stone. Who is the only who has no sin? It is Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can judge us because his judgments are right. Lent means to put ourselves in front of Jesus Christ. I invite you to go to the Easter Vigil this year to experience this freedom of putting yourself in front of Christ.
The priest has an option this week to do the gospel of Lazarus. Jesus arrives at the house of his friend Lazarus and asks where is he? They respond that he is dead he’s in the tomb and he has been there for four days. Jesus says remove the stone. They say they cannot because it already smells. Jesus again says remove the stone. They respond as we do; we don’t want to move the stone because it’s too smelly. If they don’t roll the stone Jesus cannot say Lazarus come out. He would not be able to hear him. He would not be raised from the dead.
Many of the cemeteries are kept very beautifully; the grass is cut; the bushes look perfect; the marble shines, but all of this covers the reality of death and rottenness. Perhaps there’s a tomb with a beautiful piece of new marble over it and it looks beautiful. Maybe it is like the woman in the gospel; she looks perfect. But beneath is death and rottenness. Imagine this woman thinking when Jesus calls her over that these are the last minutes of her life. It’s like a man waiting to get a lethal injection and somebody walks in and stops the process and saves this person. This is a Good News! This is what Christ does for us. Christianity is a good news that sets us free.
What does Jesus say to the woman? He doesn’t say that her sin was not a big deal. He doesn’t push it aside. He says, “Go and sin no more.” No one loves us in this way, with mercy, with forgiveness, with a new beginning. Let us rejoice in this Good News and remember what the psalm says: The Lord has done great things for us; we should be filled with joy.