Condemnation, College and Confession

Of course, today we enter the final stretch of Lent with the church traditionally

calls Passion Tide, when we cover the crosses,

avail them, and the images in the church, the physical consignment signs, a spiritual unveiling.

We are now invited to gaze more deeply into the

mystery of Christ's suffering and realize that there

is a time in the liturgical year

of the church when in a sense we don't have a savior or he's preparing to go

under the most difficult time of his life this actually used to be the passion

sunday the palm sunday and that's what we have you know left is is the veiling

of the crosses next sunday of course is the palm sunday,

when we will be coming to church and welcoming jesus as if he entered into jerusalem

again After last week, the gospel of the prodigal son, this week,

this Sunday, we hear the very well-known, famous scripture passage,

the woman caught in adultery.

On the surface, of course, it seems to appear straightforward.

The scribes and Pharisees, they know the law. They know that Jesus knows the

law. They probably never expected the answer that Jesus gave because it's basically

not out of human mind, the answer.

And I remember being a little boy in a church listening to this gospel for the first time.

I don't know. I may have been five, four, six.

But I remember listening attentively

and thinking how is it even possible that

someone could actually take a stone and like and

and kill other people a woman

especially because she committed a sin and like do it as a as a as a sign of

righteousness right but then I remember being interested in in the Jesus answer

because I was always kind of excited about how is Jesus going to deal with the Pharisees,

the evil Pharisees and Sadducees in my mind.

And so the way he deals with them is, of course,

something that points to what is not of human origin, not of intelligence,

right, or trained intelligence or trained knowledge that I consume books and

then my brain processes it just like learning a language, right?

And eventually what comes out is like the proper sentence, right?

But it is a gift from God because Jesus is connected with God the Father.

Now, we all have access to it, and that is why, you know, sometimes very uneducated

tribes in, you know, other parts of the world will have what is perceived as wisdom.

Or if they're a Christian, somebody will go there and say, basically from Africa

right now, we have so many scholars coming out, you know, So many future bishops,

extremely involved scholar priests who are coming out of African continent and

basically showing not only great intelligence that was the capacity for it, and also great wisdom,

which is a sign of a connection with God.

And of course, that wisdom cuts through the human tendency to just according to my ideal, right?

These men, as we know from commentaries, Sadducees, Pharisees,

one of them apparently was sinning with her.

So she is cheating in her marriage.

She's caught in the very act of adultery, but she's cheating with one of them.

And of course, the problem is that back then in that culture,

nobody cared for the sin of the man. Let's cover up with the woman.

Jesus cuts through this, and that's why he presents to them a question,

basically stating implicitly it's one of you, one of you.

Is with the sin but if none of you have any sin then go ahead and stone her,

in this situation when someone tells you the truth about yourself,

well i think we all want to just kind of

walk away put our hands down like sometimes we

are in a fighting position right we want to fight somebody

because we have the arguments and we know we're gonna

win or we think we're gonna win we keep pushing through maybe

in marriage you know you may have arguments you know in marriage

and you keep pushing through but if the husband or the

wife tells you the truth about you that is pointing to

who you truly are inside or at least to the behavior that maybe the the spouse

only knows you want to do what well you just kind of like come down and you

just want to walk away and rethink

your strategy right this is important because just like this scene is,

in a sense, a moment of the woman's confession, right?

Jesus will approach her with great respect, as he has for women,

learned from his mother, right?

The Christianity basically is teaching the world how to respect women.

Unfortunately, the forces of evil are telling these women that Christianity is their enemy, right?

So they attack us, angry at men or angry at churches.

But Jesus is the example. He approaches with dignity, with great respect,

and he says, Has no one condemned you? No one, sir.

Neither do I condemn you, go, and from now on sin no more.

Which means I acknowledge your sin, you have sinned, and it's something that

I cannot tolerate, and so I give you this forgiveness, but I ask you to don't do it again.

It's a confession, of course.

Now, we have this privilege that we don't have to be condemned publicly, right?

We have a place that is protected so far by the law. Although,

I don't know if you've seen, I've seen it in Poland, I've seen it in the United

States, that in Canada, pressures to what?

Pressure the priest to reveal sins from confession, especially if they're criminal, right?

So kind of like the last place that we have where we can go and expose ourselves

and be embraced by Jesus' love and mercy, right, is sometimes under almost attack and danger.

But that's what's happening. When they all walk away, notice,

when they all walked away, Jesus says to her, where are they?

Right? They're gone. Has no one condemned you? No one, sir. The moment of confession.

And because she's making that moment of confession and closeness of Jesus personally,

right, she can receive what we call some healing through acknowledging of her own fault.

She doesn't have to say she's sorry. She was dragged publicly in front of everybody to be stoned.

You cannot compare that with any other humiliation.

But why so many people, and that's my main question for this homily.

Why so many people remain trapped in the past, in the past sins?

Imagine this woman now, years later, right, 2,000 years later,

and she's a member of our parish, let's say.

So that's just a symbolic idea. She can be a man, she can be a woman.

It can be a man, it can be a woman. And sitting in a pews and went to confession

and had the same kind of sin.

Why, one of the most serious ones, because it breaks the relationship between spouses.

I mean, the recovery is sometimes impossible in this world. right,

as it comes to human experience.

How long would it take for her to recover from such a public humiliation and

be okay or become a practicing Catholic and not think about like,

I used to be this or I used to be that?

We see that once in a while there are people who are like leaving the pornography

industry, for example, or like, you know, there's the new trend going on,

the horrible, horrible trends. that are connected with it, right?

The people that signed up to these websites, they make a lot of money,

and then broken morally, mentally, spiritually, psychologically are coming out

of it and trying to like seek Jesus restoration.

How long do you think would it take? And why does it take so long sometimes,

sometimes all of our lives?

And I want to mention this too, especially for those who are preparing to go to college.

Of course, I could say that, you know, our children from St.

Anne's are going to college and they're going to be the best examples of Christianity.

Like none of them will sin morally, but I would be naive.

College creates this atmosphere, as you know, right? It will label you.

It will want to label you. It will either to invite you to all kinds of groups,

men's groups, women groups.

You know, you'll have to like be involved with the sports.

You'll have to buy a t-shirt. You'll have to have all these labels and one of

them will be to potty and then to whatever, get crazy, do whatever you want,

you know, so that you can get it out of your system.

And then when you are done, then you can just create a great functioning marriage

and like go on with life and everything will be just fine and you can just forget about it.

So if someone thinks that way you obviously have never been a priest hearing confessions.

You never observed people how much

they struggle years and years and years later to restore their sense of dignity

to get rid of shame to be able to look at their own children and say like i

cannot believe i used to do these things you know i went to college actually

to do three different colleges When I was in Poland,

I went to college and I was like, after the first year, I was like, man, this is crazy.

Like if we if I continue this, right, like my life is going to be over.

And I'm like, I still have some like breaks, right, because I go to confession, I go to mass.

But like I saw people who have no breaks and I'm like, how did they survive

this? Right. So they survive.

I survived. And then I come to the United States to study and they send me to

Georgia Southern University. And I'm like, Bishop, what are you thinking?

Like, you want the future seminarian and priest to go to Georgia Southern and

study like a normal student, right?

So I go and I see another level.

Of crazy another level um

and what about what i mean by crazy is just like the

the attitude towards casual everything

friends with benefits a thing

that i hear for the first time when i'm 23 years

old and i don't know what that means and i'm

sitting there like asking people like what does this mean and they

tell me and I'm like oh well apparently

a normal thing and so if that's the preparation for

future marriages also within

Catholic community then no wonder we have

so many divorces no wonder we have so many

infidelities no wonder we have so much anxiety about will this ever work because

all of these behaviors leave a mark and attachments and and invite all kinds

of imbalance and evil and are offensive to god it's a it's almost like a subculture.

That we are being pulled into and it's only

up to us if we are going to say no to it

and if we say no to it then we should know why we're saying no and

i remember like walking around this is kind of like this you know sign

on my t-shirt like i'm a future priest i'm a future seminarian it's like don't

touch me right it's like i need to survive this uh it's gonna be it's gonna

be difficult and it was and it was and i just look back and always like my god so much grace of god,

to to protect me and to kind of know why i would say no to some of these you know opportunities.

That world presents.

Why would you say no? You have to know why you're going to say no.

And I think the woman caught in adultery is a great example of why we would want to say no.

Because we don't want to arrive in a moment in our life when we are exposed publicly, in a sense.

It doesn't have to be literally publicly. But just to ourselves, you know how it is.

When we mature, when you have children, it's like the children become a mirror.

And you look at them, right? So many families, which is great,

so many parents have changed just because they had a child.

They look at the child and say like, oh no, I want to protect my child from

all of these things because it wasn't good.

And then we have those parents who are like, you know, they kind of cleaned

up a little bit and they're like show up in the church and everybody from their

friends are like, what are they doing in church?

And they don't have to answer to anyone. they don't have to answer to anyone

they should be in church because they have experienced the same grace that the

woman caught in adultery have experienced but sometimes people.

Women, men, I think women more, because women like to accuse themselves for

everything, right? Blame themselves.

Women like to, unfortunately, that's, you know, part of the probably original

sin, take the blame, right, on themselves.

And the church understands it. Jesus understood it too.

And they believe that there is something wrong with them, right?

And a great example of this was the woman at the well who had five husbands.

And Jesus said, no, the one you're with now, it's not your husband.

Why is that? Well, because she may have had a good relationship and then her heart was broken.

Because I think most women are just kind of entering in first love relationship,

thinking that it's going to be like a fairy tale.

But if someone takes advantage of them, what happens there?

Well, it's not only a broken heart, but also a broken belief in true love,

in the goodness of men, in the goodness of marriage, in the goodness of Jesus.

And then shame comes in and says, you don't deserve anything good,

so just go with the bad guys, right, because you don't deserve anything else.

Guilt says, you did something wrong. Shame says, you are wrong.

You are bad but this is not the

voice of christ this is the voice of the pharisees and the sadducees and satan

himself telling you to stay down because he wants to stone you jesus says he

straightens up it says twice straightens up it says i don't condemn you.

Sin no more, change your life, and you will cover up a multitude of sins.

I'll explain that in a second.

And so sometimes they drag on without being this kind of proud Catholic with

a head up, back straight.

Who cares about the past if it's over? Jesus definitely doesn't.

They have not forgiven themselves or they have not repented.

They think, I can just close the chapter and never repent again.

And sometimes I go to church, sometimes I don't go to church,

but it's still better than when I was in college. Well, that's not enough.

Because the weight of these sins, college sins, I would say,

is huge. It's a huge weight.

And to outweigh it, you need to really engage with God and be faithful.

Otherwise, it will come out eventually, consequences.

The wounds are still open. And sometimes people cannot get better because there

are open spiritual attacks. Of course, the devil will come and discourage you

and say, like, you don't deserve, you'll always be this, you'll always be that.

Or have not fully encountered grace.

Some know God's mercies intellectually, but not experimentally.

They don't come to adoration.

They don't do extra prayer. They don't go to confession.

Because they said, well, you know, it happened once and it's over. It's not over.

We have to continuously return to the cross. We have to speak to someone holy and wise.

And you know what's the best remedy for past sins?

And I think a good example is here women who struggle with post-abortion trauma. Or men.

Men who struggle with it too. Because they pressured someone to get abortion,

because they gave the idea, or contraception.

You know what is the best thing to do? is to teach others how not to do it.

It's to teach, it's to give your life in a sense in service of the truth of the gospel.

And I think that's why Jesus allows some of the broken men to become priests.

He allows some of the broken women, right? There are sisters online who are

like telling about their crazy college life.

And now there are the voice of women who are broken.

This is why, but they have to become the voice of the gospel.

Or otherwise they're all gonna fall apart and they'll be out again.

Or we will be out again. And the same with you.

If you want to, if you feel that you have done bad, then teach someone to do

good. Start with your children.

Start with your children why because the scripture says this whoever brings

back a sinner from his wandering will will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sin,

that's why when you are gathering disciples when you're pulling

people out of their evil ways you are actually covering

your own sins by that god's grace this is james

5 you want to look it up James 5 20

I was telling that to you know

the the future priest I was like hey man I brought you

kind of from your evil ways like that means

that if you become a priest like I don't have to do anything

else I just go to heaven right and it's like I wish

I mean I may maybe but like who wants to do maybe right like you better be sure

so parents um very important and I said that before One of the things that I

see is the children between Coley Communion, Confirmation,

and high school.

In our parish and most parishes, they don't go to confession regularly.

At least 90% of them.

10% goes. Well, maybe 15%.

But this is the problem.

If if they don't go to confession you

tell them to apologize to you you tell them to apologize to the teachers you

tell them to apologize to their friends you tell them to apologize to leaders

of their sports but you don't tell them to apologize to god so what is going

to be their understanding about the relationship with God.

That it just automatically happens? Well, it doesn't.

We Catholics go to confession. We Catholics honor it.

Parents, if you let your child without confession after first,

second grade, you know, we have 40 children to communion this year.

And last year was 35 and 35 confirmation, 70 children plus 200 in faith formation.

Where are they? I don't have 200 confessions on Saturday afternoon.

I understand that the weather sometimes is nice or you're busy,

you don't really want to do it. But until we have a second priest, please pray for one.

Until we have a second priest, you have to make that extra effort.

Once a month, once in two months at least, bring them to confession.

Because if you don't, they will be terrified of confession.

You know how uncomfortable they get when they get to Confirmation class and

we tell them you need to go to Confession before Sacrament?

Uncomfortable. Why? Well, because when they had second-grader sins, they didn't have to go.

Well, second-graders are not scared

of their sins or third-graders or fourth-graders, maybe the boys are.

But if they are not in friendship with confession, feel comfortable going in

there, don't expect them to be. And I feel bad for them.

Because it's such a great experience to go to confession all the time when you're going.

It's just like, it's the greatest experience the woman has in her life.

This woman caught in adultery that she encounters Jesus and he says, your sins are forgiven.

Go in peace and sin no more. That's the highlight of her life.

And we make it by not bringing them a most terrifying moment. And it's not fair.

For them. So I ask you, please consider, Tuesday we have a penance service.

There will be eight priests here in this church, hearing confessions until the last person.

I don't know how long it's going to take, but bring your children,

bring the youth, college students.

Don't tell me that your teenagers don't have sins, because if you believe that,

well, you must be living on another planet, along with those who want to live on another planet.

This is just not true, and it's not good for them.

So today, as we encounter our journey through Passion Tide, the veiled crosses,

remind us that the hour of redemption is near,

that Christ hides his glory for a moment so that we might confront our sin,

our frailty, and our need for mercy.

But he also reveals to us the path to restoration, sometimes a long path, but good and beautiful.

Like the woman in the gospel, we are not defined by our worst moments.

We are defined by the gaze of Christ, the gaze that sees beyond failure,

that calls us by name, that refuses to condemn, but invites us to begin again.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus says, Behold, I make all things new.