Homily Easter 2C: Fishing with the Lord and St. Peter

 Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Easter Year C 2022

Acts 5:27b-32,40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Introduction

Today’s gospel passage that comes from John Chapter 21 is kind of like a lagniappe. You see in John Chapter 20, the evangelist had kind of concluded the gospel, saying for example, that there were many other signs that Jesus did that he did not write – they were just too many. But that he had written those few to help the reader believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

So, why then this additional chapter 21?  Why is John landing the plane and then taking off again?  I want to suggest that perhaps John does so to give us three important messages, nuggets of inspiration for our life as a Church.

Scripture and Theology

The first nugget is the image of fishing.  “I am going fishing” Simon Peter tells his friends.  We probably recall a similar episode at the beginning of St. Luke’s gospel, in which Peter and his friends were fishing and the Lord met them and converted them into fishers of men.  It might then seem that Peter and his friends have now returned to Galilee, to resume their previous livelihood of ordinary fishing, since the great enterprise of Jesus had seemingly come to nothing.  But with this post-Easter fishing story, John wants to remind us of the essential missionary dimension of the Church, the fishing of men and women for Christ. 

Perhaps that is why Jesus does again for them what he did at their first meeting. After they have caught nothing on their own, perhaps because they have been away from fishing for three years and have lost their touch, he suggests: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  And like the first time, they put aside their fisherman pride, obey the stranger and catch a boatload of fish.  They are back again!  They can do it, with his help of course.

But what kind of fish are they to catch?  Only trout or tilapia, cod or cat fish, swordfish or my absolute favourite, salmon?  By giving the small detail of how many fish they caught – 153 in number, John is suggesting that our fishing expedition for Christ must be universal; St. Jerome explains 153 was thought to be the number of types of fish in the sea. So, the disciples are called to catch men and women of all nations and languages, races and cultures; no fish is to be excluded from the Lord’s catch.

I have heard it said that only in America, where you have recreational fishing do people go fishing on a full stomach, with coolers of beer and sandwiches. In many other places fishing is a livelihood, a means of putting food on the table.  Perhaps that is why the Lord had breakfast ready for them when they come ashore, for they were fishing on an empty stomach.  When Peter said “I am going fishing” his outing was not a hobby, but a livelihood, as is the missionary work of the Church. 

And that brings us to the second message of this chapter. Apart from the reminder that it is the Church’s mission to fish men and women for Christ, we are also told that said fishing can only be done with Christ’s help. Already we have seen that these experienced fishermen had failed to catch any fish.  And they only did so, after Jesus intervened and gave them some advice.

But we can also see this message conveyed in the breakfast prepared at the charcoal fire.  This breakfast hearkens back to the many miracles in which Jesus showed God’s generous providence: providing wine at the Wedding of Cana when they had run out; multiplying loaves and fishes to feed the crowds; providing living water that did not run out to the Samaritan woman at the Well.  But perhaps the most important reference of the breakfast is the Eucharist.  The fish and bread represent the Eucharist.  Like he did at the Last Supper, with bread and wine, Jesus feeds his apostles with bread and fish, to nourish not only their fatigued bodies from all the overnight fishing, but also to nourish their souls, for the mission they are about to undertake.  And so, not only does the Lord feed his disciples with the Word when he advises them where to fish, he now also feeds them with bread and fish, already prepared for them, just like he does in the Eucharist.  They went fishing on an empty stomach; they return home with a full stomach in more ways than one. Our missionary work must be based in the Word and the Eucharist.

This charcoal fire brings us to a third message from this chapter.  Do you recall another charcoal fire in the gospels, the charcoal fire at which Peter denied the Lord, not once, not twice, but three times (Jn. 18: 15-18, 25-27)?  Now at a different fire, one on which Jesus is making breakfast, the Lord gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial, asking him three times: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these [other disciples]?"  As we heard, three times, Peter responds that he loved the Lord.  And each time, the Lord entrusts Peter with a task: "feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."

At the risk of mixing up metaphors, we might say that in making Peter the shepherd of the Church, he is also appointing him captain of the fishing boat, which is the Church.  Peter is thus not only responsible for bringing in more fish, but he is also responsible for nourishing the sheep already in the fold.  He is responsible for the salvation of all the disciples, for the whole Church.  Peter thus became the first Pope, the first papá or father of the whole Church, for that is what pope means.

As we know from various episodes in the gospels, Peter wasn’t the sharpest knife the drawer to say nothing about his denial of the Lord.  But the Lord saw something in him, perhaps even this very manifest weakness, that would make him the ideal captain of the boat.    Since Peter, Popes have carried on that same task of feeding and tending the lambs and sheep of the Church, of fishing men and women for Christ.  To be honest, some did a terrible job at it.  But most have done a great job, like the last three popes that we have had.  With his charisma Pope John Paul tended the sheep by giving them hope; with his intellect, Pope Benedict XVI tended the lambs by feeding their faith with truth; with his love for the marginalized, Pope Francis has fed the lambs with the message of love.  Faith, hope and love.

Christian Life

My friends, as we continue the Easter season, we must take to heart these three messages of John’s very last chapter.

First, we must never forget that like the apostles, we too have been commissioned to be fishers of men and women, all men and women for Christ. There is nobody who should be denied a chance to hear the gospel, not even those who like Peter have sinned terribly, as Pope Francis continues to remind us every day.

Second, we must never forget that our fishing expeditions cannot be done based on our own efforts alone; we don’t go fishing on a full stomach, we go fishing on any empty stomach, so that the Lord himself might feed us and give us the wisdom and strength to fish well.  Despite our human skills at fishing, such as our gifts of preaching, praying, and human virtues, we always need his help.  We get this help primarily from his Word and from prayer and the sacraments.

Third, as we are carrying out this fishing expedition, we are not lone-rangers, but have a captain to lead us.  This is the successor of Peter and his fellow bishops who succeed the apostles.  No Catholic worth the name can claim to be fishing in the name of Jesus if he or she does apart from or worse still, in opposition to the captain of the boat, the Holy Father and bishops who are in communion with him.  To do otherwise is the very definition of being a Protestant.

Conclusion

One final thought.  What do you do when your computer or other electronic gadget is having problems?  Sometimes resetting it will do the trick.  That is what Jesus has done here.  After the resurrection, what better place to serve as a symbolic reset than Galilee, the place where he first met the disciples, the place where he first commissioned them.  Now he sends them out again full of strength.  What the Lord did for Peter and his friends, he can do for you and men.  Are we in need of a reset as we go about our mission in life?  Let us return to Galilee with the Lord.

Homily Easter: Christ is risen, he is risen indeed

 Homily for 1^st Sunday of Easter 2022

Acts 10:34a,36-43; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8; John 20:1-18

Introduction

Happy Easter to you all!  That’s how we Western Christians exchange paschal greetings.  Our Eastern brethren, do it differently.  They say "Christ is risen," to which the response is "he is risen indeed."  I like that greeting. It doesn’t mince words; it goes straight to the heart of what we celebrate.  That Christ is risen, risen indeed.  I would like to reflect on three points drawn from our gospel, that help us understand what it means that Christ is risen, especially for us.

Scripture and Tradition

Did you notice that both today's gospel from Saint John and last night's gospel from Saint Luke opened the resurrection story with: "On the first day of the week"?  Jesus indeed rose on the first day of the week.

But what is the first day of week?

·        The calendars of most countries, perhaps even your work calendar count Monday as the first day of the week, perhaps because they are focused on work and we usually grudgingly go back to work on Monday.

·        In the Islamic world, however, Saturday is the first day of the week.

·        But in the Jewish and Christian tradition, even though the Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, Sunday is the first day of the week.

And so that Jesus rose "on the first day of the week" can tell us something about the meaning of the resurrection.  This phrase points back to first day of creation in Genesis.  For it was on the first day "when God created the heavens and the earth," when "God said: Let there be light, and there was light," when "God saw that the light was good," calling the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And all this happened on the first day of the week (1:1-5).

The resurrection of Jesus, taking place on the first day of the week, similarly ushers in a new creation, the climax of a whole series of events as we heard in the many readings of last night, that bring about a new world, the Kingdom of God.  Mary Magdalene came to the tomb when it was still dark, just as it was dark when God began to create the world.  And Mary Magdalene left with the light of the resurrection news, just as God created the sun and the stars to provide light.  At the resurrection, God is at work again, starting afresh, creating anew.  And as we know, the world has not been the same since the first Easter.

But why is the resurrection of Jesus a new creation?  That brings us to the second point of our reflection, the empty tomb found by the women, the empty burial cloths found by Peter and John.  These signs point to a deeper meaning of the resurrection than is commonly understood.

If you were to ask people, including us Catholics, "what does it mean that Jesus rose from the dead?" you would perhaps receive several different explanations – and most of them would be wrong, very wrong.

Some think of the resurrection as meaning that Jesus came back to life, in the same way that Jesus raised to life the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), the daughter of the synagogue official Jairus (Mark 5: 35-43) and Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (Jn. 11:1-44). But this is not the resurrection; this is simply resuscitation, which is someone coming back to their previous life, not a new life.  Moreover, a person that is resuscitated will die again.  In fact, the religious leaders tried to kill Lazarus, and indeed all three people that Jesus resuscitated died again.  In the case of Jesus, after he rose from the dead, he would not die again; he lives on forever.  Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

A second misunderstanding is to see the resurrection as a “reincarnation.”  The idea of reincarnation, that is, coming back but in another human or animal body, has recently made some inroads into the Western world through some New Age practices.  In some of the Asian religions the goal of life is for soul to return to this earthly life.  Thus, those who live an upright moral life can expect to return perhaps as Meryl Streep or Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington or Antonio Banderas.  But those who lead a wicked life, after death will sadly return as pigs, or sheep or even worse, nutria.

Even in Bible, there are hints of a belief in reincarnation, as when for example Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was and they replied: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Mt. 16:14).  But both before and after his resurrection, Jesus did not come back as another person.  He came back as himself, but a glorified self who could leave the tomb without removing the big stone, enter rooms even with doors closed.  For Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

A third promising but still imperfect explanation is the one that understands the resurrection as meaning that Jesus' soul entered into eternal life and his soul would live forever.  This is what the Greeks believed, in the immortality of the soul, that at death the souls of the just would not die, but would leave behind the bodies and go on to live eternally.  Even in the Old Testament, when the books of Daniel and Wisdom that speak about life after death, they only speak of the immortality of the soul, saying nothing about what happens to the body.

But even this explanation is not enough, because when Jesus appears, he does so not just with his soul, but also with his body, as he will show the doubting Thomas, by having him touch his hands and side.  For Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

That is why we must return to the gospel story itself to find the true meaning of the resurrection.  And the answer is right there in the empty tomb, the empty burial cloths.  For if Jesus had merely resuscitated, his body would be there, just like they had to open the tomb to retrieve the resuscitated body of Lazarus.  But Mary Magdalene, the women and the apostles, who were witnesses to the resurrection, don't claim that Jesus is merely resuscitated, or reincarnated, or come back to life only in some spiritual way.  They also don't tell the resurrection story in the way we tell fairy stories saying "once upon a time" or "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away."  No.  They simply assert that Jesus of Nazareth, their friend and master, is alive again in a new way.  For they understand the resurrection to mean a new form of life, in some sense a new creation, that has both the body and the soul, no longer in the way we live in this world, but a in manner of life that is at once bodily, as it is heavenly. 

A few years ago a box of ancient bones dated from the time of Jesus was discovered in the Near East.  Some people claimed that these were the bones of Jesus.  A dear Catholic friend of mine, who I am sorry to say, has more piety than good sense, was very excited about this find.  Aghast, I had to quickly explain to her that while we Catholics really love our relics of saints, Padre Pio, even the Shroud, the one relic that we neither have nor desire to have is that of the body of Jesus.  For the Jesus is risen in body and soul.  His body and soul were reunified in a new glorified state, one from which he will never die again. For Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

Christian Life and Conclusion

And so, to the third point of our reflection.  Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, "saw and believed"; they became witnesses of the fact that Jesus was risen in body and soul, sharing with others what they saw and believed.  That is what St. Peter in our first reading was boldly proclaiming to anybody who cared to listen, that Jesus is risen and is risen indeed.

May the good news of the resurrection, understood correctly, give us hope for our own resurrection of body and soul.  On the Last Day, we too hope to do what Jesus did on the first day of the week, rise in body and soul.  We shall return, not to this life, not even as some glamorous celebrity, but as a better and glorified form of ourselves, a version 2.0 of what God has made us to be.

But to ensure our resurrection into life, not into death, we must live like people of the resurrection, as St. Paul admonished the Colossians and us: "Brothers and sisters, If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God . . .. not of what is on earth."  Jesus has opened the path to resurrection; he has shown the way to the resurrection.

And all this is possible, because Christ is risen, he is risen indeed (repeat)!

Homily Holy Thursday 2022: Jesus’ Last Will and Testament: Service of Worship and Service of Neighbour

 Homily for Holy Thursday 2022

Introduction

What did he leave for me in his will? That is something one might ask when a rich relative dies.  Today we celebrate the Last Will and Testament of Jesus, which he left on the day before he died.  And like the greedy relative, we too might ask, what did Jesus leave for us?

Scripture and Theology

The Last Will and Testament that Jesus left is very different from the ones we human beings leave behind.  As St. Paul tells us, the Lord Jesus, “became poor although he was rich” (2 Cor. 8:9) and so he had nothing material to leave behind.  But he had something much more valuable; salvation, life with God in heaven.

Tonight, on Holy Thursday, we remember in a special way, the two instructions he left for us his brothers and sisters, his friends, which show us the way to the Father: these are, the service of the Eucharist and the service of our Neighbour.

St. Paul writing to the Corinthians as we heard in today’s second reading summarized for us this first instruction from the Lord’s will.  As we know Paul was not present at the Last Supper; but he was told:

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said,
“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

St. Paul went on to add:

In the same way [he] also [took] the cup, after supper, saying:

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

With these words Jesus very clearly stated how he wanted to be remembered by his followers: they were to take, bless and eat bread and drink from the cup, which are his real body and his blood.  And so when we come to Mass, we are doing nothing but fulfilling the last will and testament of our Lord and Master.

But why does Jesus want us to do this?  St. Paul tells us why, saying, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”  In other words the bread and wine we drink are not mere bread and mere wine.  They are the Body and Blood of Jesus given in death on the cross for our salvation.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, eat his body and drink his blood, we also share in his sacrifice which brings us to salvation.

You see, we human beings are semi-dumb; yes, we are kind of dumb.  We are not as dumb as the brute animals who cannot understand spiritual things, but we are not as smart as the angels, who know God directly.  We are somewhere in the middle, needing reminders, tangible signs and symbols to help us understand and appreciate spiritual things.  That is why our liturgy is full of signs and symbols of the divine things, or as some put it, the bells, yells and smells.  But most important of all, we have the very Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Even the people of Israel needed such a reminder of the salvation God had given them when he freed them from Egypt.  We heard in the First Reading that on the night before they were to leave Egypt, they too ate a Last Supper, consisting of a lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  This meal was supposed to symbolize their passage from slavery to freedom that was to begin the next day.  And God commanded them to celebrate this meal, the Passover, every year, so that all generations would experience in a real way, how God had saved them.

We Christians are far more fortunate.  In this meal that the Lord has left for us in his will, he himself is present under the form of bread and wine.  It is like he never left us; he is still here with us every time we celebrate the Eucharist.  And because he is with us in the Eucharist, he puts us on the sure path to salvation.

Closely linked with the Eucharist is the Priesthood, which the Lord also instituted.  Since the Eucharist is a Sacrifice, the memorial of his Sacrifice on the Cross, it needs priests, those who offer the sacrifice.  And so to ensure that we will always have the Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus made the apostles his priests, to offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist, another example of his magnanimous generosity.  That is why on this same day, in the morning, the priests gather with their bishop to celebrate the Chrism Mass at which they renew their priestly promises.

But the Eucharist and the priesthood are not enough.  On that same night, Jesus left in his will a second instruction, an equally important means of getting to heaven, which is service of neighbour.  We heard how Jesus removed his outer garments and washed the feet of his disciples, despite the loud protestations of Peter.  And then Jesus concluded:

“Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

Just like he said about the bread and wine, “do this in remembrance of me,” now Jesus commands the same thing about service: “as I have done for you, you should also do.”

As Christians we are therefore called upon, not only to come to the service of worship, but also to perform the service of neighbour, especially the poor and needy.  At the end of Mass, the priest or deacon dismisses us saying: "Go and announce the gospel of the Lord" or "Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life."  These words tell us that after we have fulfilled the first instruction of Jesus’ last will by coming to Mass, we must go and fulfil the second instruction of the will by announcing the gospel and glorifying the Lord by our life.

We fulfil this second instruction, by washing the feet of whoever needs us, whenever and wherever they are.

·        We wash the feet of our family members.  Spouses literally and figuratively wash the feet of each other; parents literally and figuratively wash the feet of their children, and the children return the favour when their parents are elderly.  We also do that for grandparents, siblings and relatives.

·        Even at work, as we do our jobs, if we do them well, we are washing the feet of our clients, subordinates and bosses.  For when we do our jobs in a spirit of service, aren't we doing as Jesus did, aren't we remembering him?

·        But mostly we wash the feet of those who have nobody else to wash their feet, particularly through the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy.  In attending to the bodily and spiritual needs of the poor, the elderly, the sick, prisoners, the hungry, the thirsty, we are caring for those who appear to be beneath us and outside our circles, like Jesus himself who, despite being Lord and Master, washed the feet of his disciples and students, of dumb human beings.

Christian Life and Conclusion

My dear friends, we all take seriously the dying words of our parents and dear friends; we try honour the letter and spirit of their Last Will and Testament on pain of being haunted by them from the other side.  How much more seriously we should take the dying words of our Lord, who implores us to carry out the two forms of service at the Eucharist and to our neighbour, lest he too haunts us!

But the real reason we must carry out both forms of service, the service of worship and service of neighbour, is more profound.  Tomorrow's celebration of Good Friday will show us the profound love that Jesus showed on the Cross. The Eucharist and Service of Neighbour are signs of the real thing that saves us; they are the means by which we continue making present that Love displayed on the Cross. Like the future generations of Israel were able to appreciate how God loved and saved them from slavery in Egypt at their annual Passovers, we can also appreciate and show others, how much God has loved us, at our daily Eucharistic service and in our daily service of charity, the contents of Our Lord’s Last Will and Testament.

How do we know if we are faithfully executing Jesus’ Last Will and Testament?  We must attend to the service of the Eucharist that looks upwards to heaven, and service of neighbour that looks sideways to each other.  We must recognize Jesus BOTH in the chalice at the altar, AND in the feet and hands of the needy person.

Homily Palm Sunday C: Triumph over tragedy

 Homily for Palm Sunday Lent Year C 2022

Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

Introduction

New Orleans is known for its parades: the Mardi Gras parades, the Irish-Italian parades around the feasts of St. Joseph and St. Patrick as well as the Jazz funerals and second line parades. Is  Palm Sunday, the celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem just another parade?

Scripture and Tradition

Of course the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem has similarities with the parades of New Orleans.  Like them, the entry of Jesus was accompanied by joy, victory, triumph, celebration.

·        That is why, like the King of Rex or Zulu rides a float, Jesus rode on a donkey which the people had adorned with their clothes.

·        That is why, like we decorate the parade routs with all kinds of things, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road for Jesus.

·        That is why, like we usually shout out: “throw me something mister,”  the crowds preceding and following Jesus also shouted out something, “Hosanna to the Son of David" a word which means "Lord, save us."

But there are some differences too.

·        Jesus rode a humble donkey, not an expensive float that the King of Endymion rides.  The victory which Jesus represents is a humble victory, as represented by the humble donkey, rather than the horse.

·        But the greater difference is that the victory, triumph and joy that the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem represents is not simply fun and pleasure, but is a victory over sin and death, the victory of salvation, life with God.

·        The greatest difference is the means of achieving this victory.  The joy we celebrate during the parades costs no more than a couple of beads, coconuts and other trinkets.  The victory of Jesus comes at great cost.  That is why as we celebrate Palm Sunday with palms to represent celebration, but also with the long gospel passage of the Passion, which tells us about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the closest example of a parade with the same meaning as Palm Sunday is the parade you sometimes see in small towns or in movies, held for soldiers coming back home.  Their family, friends and fellow citizens celebrate the return home from war for one of their sons or daughters.  The mood is often joyous, but also sombre, recognizing that this victory has come at great cost, especially when the returning soldier has been injured in a serious way.

Similarly, Palm Sunday joins together, what we will celebrate separately on Good Friday and Easter.  Palm Sunday joins the pain of the cross and the victory of the resurrection.  We are reminded that the two go together, because without the Cross the victory is hollow, like some of our parades.  But without Victory our crosses have no hope, like some the despair felt by many today who do not know Jesus Christ.

Christian Application

As we begin Holy Week, which is really one continuous celebration of God’s love for us, let us not lose sight of what it is all about.

Let us take advantage of the special services of this week, which in a very dramatic way remind us of the central mysteries of our faith: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil.

Let us go to confession, to prepare our souls for Easter. Let us make use of the sacraments.

Conclusion

Let us allow God, through this Holy Week, to make us holy too, to bring us closer to God and to each other.

Homily Lent 5C: Both compassion and conversion

Homily for 5^th Sunday of Lent Year C 2022

 Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11

Introduction

As you can tell from my foreign accident, I am not from around here. Perhaps some of you think I am from Mississippi.  But actually, I am from Uganda.

When I first came to this country as a young seminarian years ago, I was invited to a fancy wedding dinner.  The RSVP card required a choice of entrée, between chicken or steak.  Now you have to understand that at weddings in Uganda, we usually have a buffet, and you get a bit of this and a bit of that.  So, I thought, I will have both; and so, I asked for both chicken and steak.  As you can imagine, because of this faux pas, I was never invited to another wedding by that family.

Scripture and Theology

While my difficulty was choosing between two goods, in today’s gospel Jesus is presented with a situation of choosing between two evils.  The Pharisees and scribes have brought him a woman, who is clearly guilty of adultery.  They set a trap for him by asking if she should be condemned to death, as the Law of Moses prescribed for adultery.  Jesus is caught between a rock and a hard place.

·        On the one hand, the rock is that should Jesus stop them from stoning her to death, he would be going against the Law of Moses that prescribed death for such serious sins; as a rabbi he would appear weak on sin.

·        But on the other hand, the hard place is that if Jesus agrees with them that she should be stoned, he would not only be going against the Roman law that reserved capital punishment to itself as the occupying government, but he would also be contradicting his own teaching about the mercy of God.

How does Jesus escape the horns of this dilemma, the stark choices of this trap?

We heard that Jesus began to write on the ground with his finger.  St. Augustine suggests that Jesus was writing down the sins of the accusers.  Others suggest that he was simply doodling, as a strategy to give the accusers time to think about their own sinfulness.  Whatever it was, it did not seem to work, for the men urged him to stop dilly-dallying and take a stand on the matter, make a choice.

Jesus responds by going to the heart of the matter and asking: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And as he continued writing on the ground, they begin to leave one by one, starting with the oldest.  Perhaps having lived the longest, the older men probably had more sins.  And so, Jesus was left alone with the accused woman.  And after establishing that nobody had condemned her, he told her: “Neither do I condemn you.  Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

With these words Jesus resolved the dilemma, without taking one side or the other, without choosing any of the undesirable outcomes.  Instead, he chose both goods.  His words taught that God is both a God of compassion and a God of righteousness.  In compassion God tells her “Go, I have forgiven you for your serious sin; I am not going to condemn you."  And in righteousness God tells her: "But do not sin again; I challenge you to live an upright life from now on.”

It is with this double-barrelled approach of both compassion and commitment, forgiveness and righteousness, mercy and justice that Jesus usually encounters other sinners like the Samaritan woman at the Well, Zacchaeus the tax-collector.

Christian Life

Unfortunately, today, this double-barrelled approach to life is not very popular.  Many people want either/or choices, black or white answers.  For example, the story is told that President Harry Truman was exasperated by his advisers whose advise often consisted of "Mr. President if you take this action, on the one hand this will happen; but on the other hand, that will happen.”  So finally, a frustrated Truman said: “GIVE me a one-handed economist."

Even in our daily lives we know that the complexity of life itself does not lend itself to one-sided or one-handed advice, or these black or white solutions.

·        Good parents, for example, know that they must be, both pleasant to their children, and at the same time teach them discipline, not one or the other.

·        Successful football coaches are, both drill sergeants and also sympathetic mentors to their athletes, not one or the other.

·        The teachers who leave a lasting impact on their students are those who both challenged their students and encouraged them, not one or the other.

It should then not surprise us that the teaching of Jesus on many moral issues, including this passage about the woman caught in adultery, takes the form of, "both . . . and," essentially rejecting sin but not the sinner’s hope for redemption.

Let us look at the teaching of the Church on some of the hot-button issues of our society, to see how it reflects this both/and approach of Jesus.

·        The US Bishops, for example, ask for an economic policy and system that both encourages industry, hard work, personal responsibility but also provides for workers and the needy members of society.

·        They want an immigration policy that is concerned both with security of the nation and care for the needy stranger, including those who came to this country as children.

·        They ask for a criminal-justice policy that both punishes the criminal and also gives him an opportunity to turn his life around; that is why they teach against draconian sentencing guidelines.  Moreover, even though we no longer execute people by stoning like the pharisees wanted to do to the woman, capital punishment should have no place among Christians.

·        Regarding sexual morality, the Church teaches both that marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman – that is why Jesus told the woman do not sin again; but the Church also spiritually accompanies those who somehow fall short of this ideal like the woman in the gospel.

·        And how can we forget the overtures of both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis to non-Catholics, even non-Christians, Muslims!  The popes both acknowledge our differences in doctrine, but they also dialogue and work together on areas of agreement regarding morality, charity and peace.

Of course, there are binary situations, like pregnancy, where a woman is either pregnant or not, for she can’t both.  Similarly, there are binary choices especially when we must choose between good and evil, or between a greater good and a lesser good, or the RSVP card that pressured into making a choice of entre.  And we must be courageous to make those choices.

How much easier life would be, if all the choices before us where as simple either/or choices!  But more often than not, we are dealing with far more complex moral situations in life, and we must remember the double-barrelled advice of Jesus, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more."

Conclusion

As we come to the end of the Lenten season, today’s gospel should guide us on the home stretch to Easter.

·        When we are like the Pharisees and scribes that brought the woman, Jesus tells us: “be merciful just as your heavenly father is merciful.”

·        But when we are caught up in sin like the woman, Jesus says to us: “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”

The invitation to heaven asks us to RSVP, not checking one entree but both mercy and righteousness, compassion and conversion, repentance and perfection.