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Daily Scripture

In You, O Lord, Justice and Mercy Meet

Today’s gospel reading triggered off in my memory the number of times I have jumped the gun by passing judgment on someone before knowing all the facts — the soft data as well as the hard data. It’s clear to me now that prejudice and bias covered up by pride have a great deal to do with this jump; our comrades can do no wrong; our foes can do no right! Of course, it’s easy to meet out mercy to those we like and easier to meet out justice to those we don’t like.

The words of Isaiah introduce the theme of mercy and pave the way for the encounter of Jesus with the adulterous woman recorded in the gospel of John. The people of Israel had prostituted themselves if not in truth, at least metaphorically. God had espoused himself to them, for better or worse for richer or poorer forever. It was an irrevocable covenant that remains to this day. The people of Israel to whom Isaiah addressed these words abandoned their God and aligned themselves with foreign powers for political and economic gain. In effect, they entered an adulterous alliance and were literally carried away to a foreign land by their greed and lust for power.

In the name of their God, a disciple of Isaiah writing in his name and style reminds them of the great exodus when God led the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the Land of Canaan, the land they called home for centuries. In words similar to these, the prophet declares, “You think that was great? Forget about it; you ain’t seen noth’in yet! I’m about to do something even more spectacular. I’ll pave a way through the wilderness and bring you home again. I will forgive your unfaithfulness and forget your affair. Your misery will meet mercy and you will be saved.”

It has been said that pride is the worst of all sins because it distorts the truth of who we are. In fact, pride is a lie. But more than this it is a distortion of who God is. Recall that the sin of Adam and Eve was not that they wanted to be like God but that they did not recognize that they were already like God — made in God’s image and likeness.

There was another encounter taking place in John’s story beyond that of the meeting between Jesus and the woman. It was between Jesus and the woman’s accusers. In was in this encounter that justice was enjoined to the ‘trial’. “Let the one who is without sin be the first to cast the stone!” Their pride blinded them to their own sins. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy as his mercy engulfed the sinful woman.

Was he being soft on sin? Hardly. “Go now”, he said to the woman “and avoid this sin.” Might we not rightly assume that this initiative of mercy effected a dramatic change in her life? God’s saving grace was fully manifested in Jesus. Oddly enough, the same mercy resulted in the hardening of her accusers. They drifted away one by one from the eldest to the youngest but they sought another opportunity to trick him into mercy mending.

John’s story about the woman caught in the act of adultery revealed the depth to which Jesus extended himself to the sinner. “In you, O Lord, justice and mercy meet! [Psalm 85] or in the words of St. Augustine, “Misery meets mercy” in the person of Jesus.

Lent is about opening ourselves up to the saving grace of God but repentance is not something we do. It is allowing the forgiving power of God to touch our life, indeed, to engulf us and point us in a new direction. It’s about God empowering us to goodness and about our initiating a new pattern of life.

Lent is also about dropping stones and the acceptance of the humanity of others, despite their sins and failures. It is about entrusting others and ourselves to the tender mercy of God. More than that, it is about allowing ourselves to become conduits of God’s mercy and saving grace—helping others to find their way out of the wilderness of failure, sin and rejection.

“To err is human; to forgive is divine.”

At the same time, to forgive is not so much an act of the will as a disposition of the heart and in many situations, the conclusion of a very long process. We dare not be presumptuous or simplistic about it.

Forgiveness does not absolve the sinner from taking responsibility for the sin or from its consequences. Thus the mantra, “There is no forgiveness without justice, no justice without truth, no truth without full accountability.”

Here is the story that a rabbi colleague shared with me many years ago. A man went into the temple for the observance of Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish observance of atonement. As he entered the Temple, he noticed all his sins were listed on the board at the entrance. He tried to erase them but he was unable to do so. Then he went inside to participate in the penitential service. As he left the temple, he attempted once more to erase his sins but again was unable to do so. He departed and set about making amends for his sins and then returned to the temple. Lo and behold, his sins had disappeared.

This story is akin to the teaching of Jesus, “When you are bringing your gift to the altar and recall that your brother or sister has something against you, go first to be reconciled and then return with your gift.”

The Scriptures set the tone not only for our Lenten journey but also for our life long journey. Our destiny is not Jerusalem the earthly city but Jerusalem the heavenly city. Mercy is our mission but we must first pass through the gateway of justice and truth. In you O Lord, justice and mercy meet and when they do, reconciliation is complete.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday July 13, 2008

“Thanks Be To God; Praise To You, Lord Jesus Christ!”

Whenever I am exposed to these readings, I think about a particular massive rock formation out of which a section of I-287 was carved many years ago in Towaco, NJ. Whatever one’s ecological take or tool, we must marvel at the ingenuity that enables us to move mountains. It brings to mind that salient comment of Jesus, “Faith can move mountains!” In this case, it took faith and not a few engineers and some heavy excavation equipment to work this miracle.

At any rate, over the years, I have watched that rock shale become a veritable rock garden. Whenever I pass that section, this is my refrain: “It takes only a little soil, a bit of sunshine and a few drops of rain for God to do what God does best!”

This little story from a reunion of World War II American P.O.W.s is even more poignant:

“Recreation in the concentration camp was limited to a brief period of exercise within a fenced courtyard with a gravel surface. Scanning the surface of the yard one day, a prisoner discovered a small green shoot in the corner. Calling the attention of his fellow prisoners to the tiny sprout, he decided to conceal a small cup of water in his hand each day so that he could water the sapling inconspicuously. Undetected by the Nazi guards, the plant grew. As Easter approached, the prisoner noticed a blossom on the stem. By Easter the lily was in full bloom. The Christian prisoners conducted a service on Easter Sunday around the newborn lily. The Jewish members of the camp managed to distract the guards by walking or grouping in such manner as to block their vision so that the service could take place without interruption.”

“Three weeks later, the prisoners were liberated by the American troops!”

The Word of God is like the seed sown in the earth. The brains and brawn of human energy are the tools that dispose the soil for the generous sower. The grace of God is like the sun that shines on fallow soil and the rain that falls on the fertile earth both of which give life to the seed and enable it to sprout and grow to full harvest. Isaiah captured the metaphor quite well in the first reading for this weekend.

A man very much in touch with his own humanity, Isaiah was also in touch with the awesome presence of God in all of creation. I think he could smell the breath of God in the air. He was a man of deep faith who believed that God’s spirit is present in all things. He understood well that God’s Spirit is rooted in the earth, in the soil and in the forests and yes, in the hearts of men and women of good will in every race and nation.

In the parable of the sower Jesus acknowledged the power of God alive and active within him. Every word he spoke, every act he performed were proclamations of God’s Word. He was in fact the living word of God. “Not on bread alone do we live but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

In Old Testament theology, the spoken word took on a life of its own and became a separate entity, as it were. “God spoke, and the world was created!” (Genesis) And in the New Testament, Jesus is identified as the word of God incarnate: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (Prologue of John).

Jesus continued this agrarian imagery and acknowledged that there are indeed obstacles to overcome when opening up to God’s word: rocky ground—spiritual density and lack of insight; shallow soil—lack of depth of character; no roots—blindness to tradition; thorns and prickly bushes—preoccupation with status, material wealth and worldly concerns.

But God is generous and with a minimum of openness on our part, God can effect an incredible yield and a rich harvest—the seed that was sown yielded a hundredfold! Even ten-fold would have been a plentiful yield!

Paul’s classic letter to the Romans is a powerful testimony to the struggle between good and evil in the world but he insisted that the struggle bears fruit not only in the life to come but also in this present life. Building on the metaphor of Isaiah and the parable of Christ, he argued for the eventual triumph of good. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

Paul claims that all creation participates in the redemptive process and that the harvest is always imminent and I suppose it would be accurate to say even immanent. “Where sin prevailed, God’s grace did more abound!”

And so as we progress through life, preoccupied with the economy, terrorism and healthcare, we remain attentive to the word of God. This is why we respond to the Scripture readings with the words, “Thanks be to God!” and to the Gospel proclamation, “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!” We accept with grateful hearts the power of God’s word. In fact, we are empowered by that word to become the word incarnate, as did Jesus—to live the word of God in all that we say or do.

Although each of us hears the Word a little differently, others will know by the fruit of our efforts how well we have listened. If our words and deeds challenge rather than hassle and if they instill calm rather than fear, then they will know that we have heard rightly.

In the midst of discontent with politics, struggles with the global economy, and disenchantment with religious extremists, we cannot succumb to negative words or deeds nor can we adopt evil means and methods even for a good purpose.

We venture on with singleness of mind, and with hope in our hearts. God’s breath is in the air and so we remain open to the rhythm of God as we search for God’s heartbeat in people of good will. We look for good in ourselves and good in others and when we fail to see it, we do not give in to discouragement but take to heart the words of the psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God!”

As never before do we need to feed on God’s word and on Jesus the living sacrament of God’s inner life.

May the goodness and graciousness of God, the abiding presence of Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always!

“Thanks be to God! Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!”