"Jesus Brings Justice and Mercy" - 5th Sunday of Lent Homily

Word Association.

It's a fun game.

Say a name or a word.

You hear a name or a word and you say what, first thing comes to mind.

We're going to play it now.

guess I'm going to play it and you're probably just going watch me play it.

Spring.

Flowers.

Grandmother.

Love.

Alex Ovechkin.

Wayne Gretzky.

You're following the hockey record.

Commanders, Super Bowl.

There's no wrong answer, that's why it's fun.

Mother Mary, Holy.

Jesus, Peace.

God, Commandments.

That would have been the answer from those who lived before Christ in the Old Testament.

And that is why the religious leaders were so intent.

on justice for this woman who broke the commandment of against adultery.

It was seen as the worst sin at the time.

But even in the Old Testament, God asked for love and mercy with justice.

St.

Thomas Aquinas had a great quote.

He said that justice without mercy is cruelty.

Justice without mercy is cruelty.

And so we think about the scribes and the Pharisees demanding justice without mercy.

They're being cruel to this woman.

And thank God Jesus is there to bring justice and mercy to this scene.

And it plays out in him in these gestures, his postures.

and in the writing and the sands, which nobody really knows exactly what he wrote, but I'm including in your bulletins some insights I'll share with you now that are the best I've

seen or heard.

So he bends down and begins to write on the ground with his finger.

The whole act of bending down, that posture symbolizes his whole mission of bending down, stooping down to us in general from heaven in this mission of mercy I talked about last

week.

begins to write on the ground.

Now the Greek word used here for writing actually is translated as engraved.

So he's writing firmly in the ground.

And the Church Father said, most likely the commandments.

So again, that representation of justice in the scene and mercy.

Then he straightens up.

And the Greek word for justice

is upright.

So he's standing up, he straightens up for the sake of justice and says, let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

Then he bends down again in his mercy posture and writes on the ground, that Greek word is more lightly right.

He's more lightly writing in the sand.

And we know that that writing can be easily wiped away or washed away.

And so he's probably writing their sins.

The sins of the woman, the sins of the leaders.

And with God, know, those sins can be easily wiped away or washed away, like they washed away the sins in baptism.

This is where God says to

Remember not the events of the past.

and to leave things in the past, forgetting what lies behind.

God is saying this, how easy, how great would that be if we could actually do this ourselves?

I always say that the biggest challenge going to confession is forgiving yourself.

We know that God forgets things from the past and he's forgiven.

He remembers not the events of the past.

What an awesome reality.

to let go of past.

And God says in all this, it's something new.

It's justice and mercy.

And so Jesus brings something new with his postures, with his writing, wiping away of sins.

And then he brings both justice and mercy to her by saying, neither do I condemn you.

Go and from now on, do not sin anymore.

She experienced something new.

The leaders saw something new.

The people, we know the crowds in general, found newness with Christ.

But in this really important critical scene, where she's broken the worst commandment, and she's to be stoned to death, and he steps in and prevents it.

in God's mercy.

That's new.

We have newness going on in our parish in the past month.

And it really ties in well the way Father Vincent describes it in terms of our Adoration Chapel, that we come up the mountain.

It's on our walkway.

Come up the mountain to encounter God here at Mass.

And then as he put it, then Jesus goes down to the valley, to the chapel.

He stoops down to be with his people.

all day, night, the 24-hour chapel.

And people are experiencing this mercy of His, this peace of His in new ways.

In conversation with Him, signs from Him, movements in their heart, the peace of parishioners, non-Catholics.

It's been a great first month.

But that experience of new mercy.

That especially when we've encountered cruelty, I can tell you the past week, I've gone to that very chapel just last week.

Having come from the experience of cruelty and asked for His mercy.

Just to be in His presence and to be treated with mercy and justice together.

But what's new is what she hears that we know.

Hopefully we know deep in our hearts and hopefully, hopefully, please associate God with mercy.

He says to her and he says to us, I don't condemn you.

I didn't come to condemn you.

I came to acquit you.