“Let the one among you
who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7)
In a climate of
confusion, uncertainty, distrust, there are many
erroneous explanations and answers, but a lived faith gives us
confidence: Some people do not lose
sight of us.
Jesus opens a new
path: salvation! Paul, in his letter to the Philippians
(3:8-14), speaks of his own "newness" after his encounter
with Jesus Christ. His is a true "miracle
of Easter": it draws him out of
himself, from his pride, he acquires new eyes and a new heart, he
meets the Risen One and - consequently - lives a new life.
The newness
is also present in the Gospel. The adulterous woman, in the encounter
with Jesus: "Woman
- he says - where are your accusers? Has
no one condemned you?".
"No one,
sir," replies the woman. "Neither
do I condemn you."
Amazed at so much
love, she feels loved and forgiven: she is
now a new creature,
able on her part to love and forgive.
But this gift of
forgiveness is received if one lives also the words that Jesus said
to the adulterous woman at the end: “Go, and do not sin again”,
as we say in the Act of Contrition: “I firmly resolve with the help
of thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin”!
Thus for the very numerous people WHO HAVE LET THEMSELVES slid into
relativism, “the most profound difficulty of our time" (Pope
Benedict XVI), the sins remain not forgiven!
In his
homily at the Mass preceding the conclave that quickly elected him
Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger said: “How many winds of
doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological
currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of
many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung
from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to
libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism
to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so
forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about
human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into
error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true. Today, having a clear faith based
on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism.
Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and
there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only
attitude that can cope with modern times. WE ARE BUILDING A
DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM that does not recognize anything as
definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego
and desires.”
(http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html;
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_relativism_may05.asp).
On the other side of the
coin are those who are quick to judge while being blind to their own
sinfulness and hypocrisy. Objectively we must judge right from wrong
according to the actions of others so as not to do the same as well
as praying and offering our sacrifices for them and then perhaps
offering a word of advice at the right moment with love and humility.
But subjectively, that which is going on inside the head of the one
who is objectively doing wrong, his motives, the graces receive from
God, his personal life history, etc., only God knows this, and thus
only God can judge this person’s culpability.
On the left side are those
who presume that all is ok according to their relativistic mentality.
“Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell… But I
noticed one thing: that MOST OF THE SOULS THERE ARE THOSE WHO
DISBELIEVED THAT THERE IS A HELL.” (Diary, 741).
On the right side
are those who are fond of doing as the Scribes and Pharisees who
brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery. THE
SCRIBES AND PHARISEES WERE BLIND TO THEIR HYPOCRISY even to the point
that Jesus said: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds
that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom
of heaven” (Mt 5:20). “Why do you see the speck that is in your
brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
(Mt 7:3; Lk 6:41).
Both sides of the spectrum
lack humility and trust in God and thus are not trying to see things
from the point of view of God but from their own point of view as if
they decide what is right and wrong as the serpent tempted Adam and
Eve (Gen 3:4-5).
- - - - - - -
An Experience of Life:
I was 17 years old
when, expecting a baby, I got married: after ten weary years I got
divorced. Then I met Mark, my current partner. To
this failure was added the awareness that a clear relationship with
the Church and perhaps with God was ending: as a divorced person I
would not have been well received in the Church anymore.
What would I
have been if a priest had not told me, "God loves you immensely,
even as you are?". If he had not kept me in the Church despite
my condition? I felt that in the parish there was a place even for
me. And from this point my journey of faith was resumed. The first
fruit was the desire in me for the need of prayer, the Mass and even
the Rosary. My life has changed and along with mine also that of Mark
and of my son Lorenzo.
I discovered that
all the past pain had a meaning, it was
linked to the cry of Jesus on the cross: "My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?" To that cry I tied the pain of not being
able to receive the Eucharist, I tied the review of my previous
marriage with the ecclesiastical tribunal. The lived experiences of
others in the Group of the Gospel that I frequented are precious to
me where there are many who are living now what I went through
before.
(Cecilia, Modena)
