Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Homily delivered by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Parish Priest
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11
I’m sorry but I find it hard to to forgive. How can you forgive someone who has wronged you but not apologised, not even realised what they’ve done? I’ve certainly heard this often from people I’ve been accompanying and I can certainly think of people whom it’s difficult to forgive. Our strong sense of justice is also important and part of the Gospel. If you’ve done something wrong you need to pay for it. You need to go through procedures. You can’t avoid that. But there’s another radical element to Jesus’ teaching which we’re called to embrace. And I think it’s really hard. To forgive even when there is no remorse or even no recognition of the wrong done. To cancel debts and give yet another chance. It requires looking at human beings from a different perspective. Not solely from the perspective of natural justice, of necessary correction, but from looking at each individual for who they are as a child of God and seeing in them the potential for giving glory to God.
I think that’s more and more difficult to relate to today, partly because, even though it is so human to find it hard to forgive, we seem to have written mercy out of our moral compass. God forgives us whatever we have done and looks on us lovingly regardless of that or even our knowledge or acceptance of it. We can never emulate God, we can never be the Father accepting the prodigal son we encountered in last Sunday’s Gospel. We can never be the Father of Mercies; only God is, and in the sacrament of reconciliation and at every Mass we encounter that gratuitous unconditional love of this God who died for us on the cross to take on all our sins. And of course, justice is also part of mercy. When a wrong has been committed it deserves correction, putting the balance as right as it can be made right, always in the interests of the person finding ways to help them to get back on track and to flourish. But at the heart of our Christian calling we need also to pray for forgiveness, for mercy from the Father of Mercies, God our Father, who always extends forgiveness to the sinner, is always merciful.
I think that’s at the heart of the Gospel today for me. Complex in the context of our everyday lives yet simple in its pulling us back to strive for the humanity at the heart of the Gospel message. But for me it is a reminder above all that one of the best definitions of the Church is that we are a Church of sinners. I know we say that a lot. It can seem like just rhetoric and so insincere. But it runs very deep. How many times have we apologised for covering up abuse in the Church and how many times found it still goes on? How many times do I, do we all, make the same mistakes in life, just showing we don’t really learn? I know I do, the same ways I get things wrong, the same errors of judgment or ignorance, the same misperceptions of situations, and I try to admit them to myself and, after swallowing my pride, to others. To try to apologise sincerely and to learn from them. But admitting you get things wrong isn’t easy in today’s society I don’t think. Quite rightly in professional and public life we are under great scrutiny and sometimes criticism is unfair and the truth twisted and we’re called to discern that, but always to recognise first and foremost we are human so we are flawed yet loved by God. Who will cast the first stone?
We don’t know much about this lady but we know she was the victim here, contrasted here with the Pharisee’s hardness of heart and quickness to judge. This woman has sinned – yes, caught in the very act – but the Law requires both woman and man caught in adultery to be condemned to death. But the powerful Pharisees and scribes, who control public opinion, twist the Law the way they want it. Of course, they are keeping to the Law – and they know they have the support of the public. But they twist it in the most appalling sickening horrific way. And that gets me really angry. They cover up the sin of the man – and they think by meting out punishment on this woman it can all be forgotten. So we just carry on. Another innocent victim. Life goes on. The same old. I wonder who that man was. A pawn in the hands of a society that had lost the ability to treat people with dignity and especially the weakest. That’s where Jesus is in this. In a revolutionary way he’s saying we need to start again, this cannot go on, this is not what the Law is about.
Mercy is an important theme for Pope Francis. On the day of his election now nine years ago we already saw evidence of the simplicity of the message he wants to communicate to all people of good will around the world. Asking us for prayers for him, bowing before the crowd. As he knew surely his humanity and the need to ask for strength and courage, to bring the message of the Gospel to a world which, despite all the wonderful things we do, has forgotten it. To recognize we are all sinners yet all loved by God and deserving of being treated with respect and dignity. We are in the middle of a conflict which is totally opposed to what Christianity teaches us. That can allow a whole country to be invaded with no care of who is killed, robbed of loved ones, homeland, amid the evil of war where human dignity is trampled on. How do we find reconciliation, forgiveness, living together again after such evil? This is why we continue to pray for peace, why we go out on marches, hold prayer vigils, and why Pope Francis has to go to Kyiv to accompany those who are in the midst of this, to pray for peace and to do all he can to build bridges constructed on human respect, dignity, justice, peace and ultimately mercy.
Pope Francis wrote this at Carnival Time in Beunos Aires just before he was elected Pope:
“Lent comes to us as a cry of truth and sure hope, which answers yes, that it is possible not to put on makeup and draw plastic smiles as if nothing is happening. Yes, it is possible that everything be made new and different because God continues to be “rich in kindness and mercy, always willing to forgive,” and He encourages us to begin again and again. Today we are again invited to undertake a paschal journey to Truth, a journey that includes the cross and renunciation, which will be uncomfortable but not sterile. We are invited to admit that something is not right in ourselves, in society and in the Church.to change, to turn around, to be converted”.