Reading 1 Is 43:16-21 Thus says the LORD, who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick. Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches, for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6. R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion, we were like men dreaming. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad indeed. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the torrents in the southern desert. Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, They shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 Phil 3:8-14 Brothers and sisters: I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Jl 2:12-13 Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful. Gospel Jn 8:1-11 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Only the woman and Jesus remained: misery and mercy. How often does this happen to us when we stop before the confessional, with shame, to show our misery and ask for forgiveness! “Woman, where are they?” (v. 10), Jesus said to her. This question is enough, and his merciful gaze, full of love, in order to let that person feel — perhaps for the first time — that she has dignity, that she is not her sin, she has personal dignity; that she can change her life, she can emerge from her slavery and walk on a new path. (Angelus, 13 March 2016)
FAUSTI - This splendid narration takes us to the heart of the message of Jesus, the Son who doesn't judge anyone and who will be judged for this. It is one of the most fascinating pieces of the Gospel, which shows how Jesus gives the Spirit who is making the whole of creation new: He Himself, from His pierced side, will be the gushing spring that washes all sins and impurities. This cleansing and purifying water promised by the prophet Ezekiel (47:1) and Zechariah (13:1) is His Love, which is fully manifested in forgiveness. In it we know who the Lord is: He is the One who opens our graves, raises us up from our graves and gives us His Spirit. The men of the law ask Jesus to know if He is favorable to stoning... They ask His opinion to set a trap for Him, as the Evangelist immediately notes. Stoning is a collective form of murder for which no one feels responsible. The result of the elimination of the wicked, is that of feeling united, reconciled and cleansed of evil, allowing society to move ahead. It should be noted that Jesus does not write on the sand, but on the stone of the pavement; in fact, the scene takes place in the temple. If we do not keep in mind the "finger" of the One who writes and we do not enter into communion with Him, Scripture itself becomes a fetish that prevents us from entering into the thought of God. The Scripture is the self-communication of the life-loving God, who does not despise any of His creatures; He has compassion for all and does not look at sin in view of repentance. The prophets have promised that there will come days when God will take away our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, and He will engrave His law not with His finger on the stone, but with the Spirit on our heart, which will finally be a new heart, able to live fully the gift of God (Jeremiah 31 - Ez. 36). The gesture of Jesus can allude to these texts, which will be fulfilled when He gives us His Spirit. Right on the cross, where the title of his condemnation will be 'written' - in Hebrew, Latin and Greek (Jn 19:19) we will understand what Jesus now writes.The LORD does not condemn, but justifies and saves by grace. The woman had been placed in the midst by the zealous ones of the law that condemns. Now she remains alone with Jesus alone, in the middle of God's infinite Mercy. Sin is the place where the superabundance of His grace is manifested. Augustine says: "Two remain: the miserable and the Mercy". In the end, what remains of every man is the encounter of his own misery with the Mercy of God. The greater is the abyss of sin, the greater is the Love that is received and the knowledge of God and of oneself that is obtained. And the greater the capacity to love. Jesus, the only One without sin, does not go away. He remains with the sinner: He is the merciful Son as the Father. He asks her if there is still a just man left who can condemn her. No one has remained who can condemn her. But One has remained: the only just One, who justifies her! When the enemies disappeared, there remained the One who loved her with eternal Love (Jer 31:3), in Whom she recognized her Lord, because He forgives her and brings her out of death. A new covenant was established between the two, now written no longer on stone, but in the heart.
GESUITS - This episode touches on the center of the Gospel message: forgiveness. The 8th c. begins with the woman who is to be stoned and ends with Jesus whom they will want to stone. The previous passage spoke of Jesus giving the Spirit, the living water that purifies, that forgives.... What does the gift of the Spirit accomplish? It changes us exactly - as Hosea says - from prostitute to faithful bride and the passage happens in this woman. In forgiveness we know who the Lord is: He is One who loves us unconditionally. So we know for the first time who we are in forgiveness: we are people infinitely loved by God, unconditionally, this is our truth. Here, it is God who converts Himself, turns towards us, but we are the ones who have turned away from Him; He takes upon Himself, however, this burden, this guilt. While Jesus is teaching, the Pharisees and scribes - the Pharisees are those who observe the law and the scribes are those who know it - bring a woman caught in adultery and put her in the middle. And they ask Jesus what should be done: What do you say? If He said that she should be stoned, He would deny His entire message; if He said that she should not be stoned, He would go against the law and they would have the pretext to condemn Him. So, in reality, in this scene the imputed is Jesus, not the woman. Jesus does not respond, He bends down, He writes with His finger on the ground and instead of being overwhelmed by the violence, He pauses, stops and does not respond, He bends down, inviting everyone to bend down and look inside themselves and then it is said that He writes with His finger on the ground and we are in the temple, there is the pavement of the temple, the stones of the floor; the finger writing on the stones reminds the Hebrews that God wrote His law with His finger on the stone tables. So Jesus is saying that Himself is beyond the law that is written, that there is One who writes it. Jesus refers to the finger of God that is at the origin of all Scripture and what does God reveal in Scripture? That He is Mercy, forgiveness, that at the center He did not put the tree of death, He put the tree of life! We are the ones who place death with our transgressions and with the cross He will put the tree of life back in the center again. The law was given for the benefit of the sinner, not to kill the sinner, but so that he may be converted and live. So Jesus calls for personal responsibility that terminates the victim system of finding the offender outside, fighting him outside because the evil is always the other! Let each one take responsibility. By the way, the consciousness of one's own evil is the greatest gift that man can have! So Jesus does not deny the law, He says: apply it to yourselves. Among other things, the elders are the ones who have to judge, they have the power of judgment and paradoxically they are the ones who discover themselves to be the most sinful and are the first to leave. And Jesus remained alone and the woman in the middle. Before the woman was in the middle of those who wanted to stone them, now she is alone in the middle with Jesus. Augustine comments: There were two left, misery and mercy. And mercy fills the misery in proportion to the misery there is, so the greater the misery, the greater the sin the greater the mercy, the greater the love. So who will love more?
--> Romans, c. 5,20: Where sin abounds, mercy abounds. And the only knowledge we can have of God is precisely that of the One who forgives, since we are all sinners and we need to know that sin is not something to be hidden as it was From the beginning Adam hid out of fear. Sin is the first title I have for mercy, As a matter of fact, we get down on ourselves for our sins simply because we have another sin: pride, which is the real sin. Forgiveness, on the other hand, sets you free. You can say: look how beautiful! I am accepted, I am loved, and when one feels accepted, loved and forgiven, he is a new man, he has a new heart, a new Spirit, he has the law of God written no longer with his finger on stone, but written on the heart of flesh, who knows who the Lord is: he is One who loves and forgives. And the sinner also knows who he is: he is one who is loved and forgiven and, therefore, the new man. "No one condemned you? And no one can condemn you because they are all unjust. Yet there is one righteous before her who does not condemn her. And keep in mind that our main accuser who wants to stone us is always our conscience. My conscience does not condemn me either, because God is greater than my conscience and forgives; I do not have to put my ego in the place of God, my superego that condemns me and stones me for my evil. God is One who forgives and makes me new again.
Reading 1
RispondiEliminaIs 43:16-21
Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2
Phil 3:8-14
Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind
but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal,
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.
Gospel
RispondiEliminaJl 2:12-13
Even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel
Jn 8:1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Only the woman and Jesus remained: misery and mercy. How often does this happen to us when we stop before the confessional, with shame, to show our misery and ask for forgiveness! “Woman, where are they?” (v. 10), Jesus said to her. This question is enough, and his merciful gaze, full of love, in order to let that person feel — perhaps for the first time — that she has dignity, that she is not her sin, she has personal dignity; that she can change her life, she can emerge from her slavery and walk on a new path. (Angelus, 13 March 2016)
FAUSTI - This splendid narration takes us to the heart of the message of Jesus, the Son who doesn't judge anyone and who will be judged for this. It is one of the most fascinating pieces of the Gospel, which shows how Jesus gives the Spirit who is making the whole of creation new: He Himself, from His pierced side, will be the gushing spring that washes all sins and impurities.
RispondiEliminaThis cleansing and purifying water promised by the prophet Ezekiel (47:1) and Zechariah (13:1) is His Love, which is fully manifested in forgiveness.
In it we know who the Lord is: He is the One who opens our graves, raises us up from our graves and gives us His Spirit.
The men of the law ask Jesus to know if He is favorable to stoning... They ask His opinion to set a trap for Him, as the Evangelist immediately notes. Stoning is a collective form of murder for which no one feels responsible. The result of the elimination of the wicked, is that of feeling united, reconciled and cleansed of evil, allowing society to move ahead. It should be noted that Jesus does not write on the sand, but on the stone of the pavement; in fact, the scene takes place in the temple.
If we do not keep in mind the "finger" of the One who writes and we do not enter into communion with Him, Scripture itself becomes a fetish that prevents us from entering into the thought of God. The Scripture is the self-communication of the life-loving God, who does not despise any of His creatures; He has compassion for all and does not look at sin in view of repentance.
The prophets have promised that there will come days when God will take away our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, and He will engrave His law not with His finger on the stone, but with the Spirit on our heart, which will finally be a new heart, able to live fully the gift of God (Jeremiah 31 - Ez. 36). The gesture of Jesus can allude to these texts, which will be fulfilled when He gives us His Spirit.
Right on the cross, where the title of his condemnation will be 'written' - in Hebrew, Latin and Greek (Jn 19:19) we will understand what Jesus now writes.The LORD does not condemn, but justifies and saves by grace.
The woman had been placed in the midst by the zealous ones of the law that condemns.
Now she remains alone with Jesus alone, in the middle of God's infinite Mercy.
Sin is the place where the superabundance of His grace is manifested.
Augustine says: "Two remain: the miserable and the Mercy". In the end, what remains of every man is the encounter of his own misery with the Mercy of God. The greater is the abyss of sin, the greater is the Love that is received and the knowledge of God and of oneself that is obtained. And the greater the capacity to love.
Jesus, the only One without sin, does not go away.
He remains with the sinner: He is the merciful Son as the Father.
He asks her if there is still a just man left who can condemn her.
No one has remained who can condemn her.
But One has remained: the only just One, who justifies her! When the enemies disappeared, there remained the One who loved her with eternal Love (Jer 31:3), in Whom she recognized her Lord, because He forgives her and brings her out of death. A new covenant was established between the two, now written no longer on stone, but in the heart.
GESUITS - This episode touches on the center of the Gospel message: forgiveness. The 8th c. begins with the woman who is to be stoned and ends with Jesus whom they will want to stone. The previous passage spoke of Jesus giving the Spirit, the living water that purifies, that forgives.... What does the gift of the Spirit accomplish? It changes us exactly - as Hosea says - from prostitute to faithful bride and the passage happens in this woman.
RispondiEliminaIn forgiveness we know who the Lord is: He is One who loves us unconditionally. So we know for the first time who we are in forgiveness: we are people infinitely loved by God, unconditionally, this is our truth.
Here, it is God who converts Himself, turns towards us, but we are the ones who have turned away from Him; He takes upon Himself, however, this burden, this guilt. While Jesus is teaching, the Pharisees and scribes - the Pharisees are those who observe the law and the scribes are those who know it - bring a woman caught in adultery and put her in the middle.
And they ask Jesus what should be done: What do you say?
If He said that she should be stoned, He would deny His entire message; if He said that she should not be stoned, He would go against the law and they would have the pretext to condemn Him. So, in reality, in this scene the imputed is Jesus, not the woman.
Jesus does not respond, He bends down, He writes with His finger on the ground and instead of being overwhelmed by the violence, He pauses, stops and does not respond, He bends down, inviting everyone to bend down and look inside themselves and then it is said that He writes with His finger on the ground and we are in the temple, there is the pavement of the temple, the stones of the floor; the finger writing on the stones reminds the Hebrews that God wrote His law with His finger on the stone tables.
So Jesus is saying that Himself is beyond the law that is written, that there is One who writes it.
Jesus refers to the finger of God that is at the origin of all Scripture and what does God reveal in Scripture? That He is Mercy, forgiveness, that at the center He did not put the tree of death, He put the tree of life! We are the ones who place death with our transgressions and with the cross He will put the tree of life back in the center again.
The law was given for the benefit of the sinner, not to kill the sinner, but so that he may be converted and live.
So Jesus calls for personal responsibility that terminates the victim system of finding the offender outside, fighting him outside because the evil is always the other!
Let each one take responsibility. By the way, the consciousness of one's own evil is the greatest gift that man can have!
So Jesus does not deny the law, He says: apply it to yourselves.
Among other things, the elders are the ones who have to judge, they have the power of judgment and paradoxically they are the ones who discover themselves to be the most sinful and are the first to leave. And Jesus remained alone and the woman in the middle. Before the woman was in the middle of those who wanted to stone them, now she is alone in the middle with Jesus.
Augustine comments: There were two left, misery and mercy.
And mercy fills the misery in proportion to the misery there is, so the greater the misery, the greater the sin the greater the mercy, the greater the love. So who will love more?
--> Romans, c. 5,20: Where sin abounds, mercy abounds.
RispondiEliminaAnd the only knowledge we can have of God is precisely that of the One who forgives, since we are all sinners and we need to know that sin is not something to be hidden as it was From the beginning Adam hid out of fear. Sin is the first title I have for mercy,
As a matter of fact, we get down on ourselves for our sins simply because we have another sin: pride, which is the real sin. Forgiveness, on the other hand, sets you free. You can say: look how beautiful! I am accepted, I am loved, and when one feels accepted, loved and forgiven, he is a new man, he has a new heart, a new Spirit, he has the law of God written no longer with his finger on stone, but written on the heart of flesh, who knows who the Lord is: he is One who loves and forgives.
And the sinner
also knows who he is: he is one who is loved and forgiven and, therefore, the new man.
"No one condemned you? And no one can condemn you because they are all unjust. Yet there is one righteous before her who does not condemn her.
And keep in mind that our main accuser who wants to stone us is always our conscience. My conscience does not condemn me either, because God is greater than my conscience and forgives; I do not have to put my ego in the place of God, my superego that condemns me and stones me for my evil. God is One who forgives and makes me new again.