7 April 2019 – 5th Sunday of Lent
Readings: Isaiah 43: 16-21; Psalm 125, Response: The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy; Philippians 3: 8-14; John 8: 1-11
Many people long for a safe place where they can reveal themselves without fear of being judged. Today’s Gospel on the woman caught committing adultery dramatically lays out the safest of all places, the mercy and forgiveness of God.
How many of us long for this safe place? Allow me to share stories on the search for and experience of a safe place.
My decision to be a teacher is linked to realizing the longing of young people for a safe place.
The initial impression I make on my students is that of a strict, no-nonsense teacher. I immediately impress on them the need for a sense of mission for the school year, and the discipline and hard work needed to attain their mission goals. After a month of drilling them on this, I see them one-on-one for around 15 minutes.
Here was where I “stumbled” upon the need for a safe place. I have three sets of conversation points. First, we discuss what they are good at, their strengths. Then we focus on where they need help or support, their weaknesses.
Finally, I would ask if they have personal concerns that might get in the way of doing well for the school year and graduating. Around 5 of my 40-42 students each year would talk about their struggles in a broken family.
Many would break down. I say, “Just let it out, I know how it feels.”
This was my first conscious experience of people’s longing for a safe place, where they can reveal themselves without fear of judgment—the most basic, safe place.
That same year, 39 years ago, I met the first student I mentored. I saw a diamond in the rough, so to speak, so I entrusted many projects to him, which he executed excellently. Towards the end of that year, he talked to me and asked me if I knew his background. Long story short, he felt that if I knew it I might not have trusted him.
This is another “version” of a safe place where we can allow people to spread their wings and fly. Here we see two necessary elements: being trusted and having opportunities to “achieve their full human potential.”
There are many versions of what became of the woman caught committing adultery after this encounter with God’s love, mercy and forgiveness in a safe place. For sure, she became a believer and a follower of Christ.
Reintegration
Clearly her being in this safe place made her whole and, I would “argue,” set her life on the path of mission; experiencing a sense of wholeness, a re-integration that leads us to a sense of our mission. And when we make the right choices, we dedicate our life to this mission God has blessed us with from the beginning.
In this safe place, she experiences God’s trust in her. “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 anymore.”
The forgiveness goes beyond reprieve of the punishment and is brought to a clear show of trust and the providing of an opportunity to be the best one can be.
In a similar way, Pope Francis was inspired by the thought that God’s mercy calls—because we are sinners. In Christ, this was the “deal of God’s mercy.” Not only are we worthy of redemption, but we are also worthy to be trusted with the opportunity to share in Christ’s mission.
In this safe place, we go through what Fr. Horacio dela Costa, SJ described as knowing one is a sinner “yet called to be a companion of Jesus, as Ignatius was, who begged the Blessed Virgin to place him with her Son, and who then saw the Father Himself ask Jesus, carrying His cross, to take this pilgrim into his company… to engage, under the standard of the cross, in the crucial struggle of our time the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes.” —CONTRIBUTED