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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.

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday October 19, 2008

Two Different Worlds

“Two different worlds, we live in, two different worlds, we love in….” These are the lyrics of a popular song dating back to ‘whenever.’ I don’t recall the year and I don’t remember all the words but the song came to mind as I reflected on the Scriptural selections for this weekend.

Actually we live not in two but in ten different worlds: the world of family, the world of work, school and play; the world of politics, the world of commerce and the money market; the world of the media; the world of science and the world of art. We have multiple memberships in many different worlds.

Different though they are, they are not really distinct or truly separate. They overlap and at some level depend on and enrich one another.

The Scriptures this weekend deal with two different worlds, which at first glance seem to be foundational texts for the ‘doctrine’ of the separation of church and state.

Our founding fathers made it clear that there would be no establishment of an official religious institution or favoritism shown to one over another but that religious freedom would be guaranteed to all. This was in response to the theocracies of ancient worlds in which one religion was cast in the role of ruler resulting in religious tyranny, Catholic as well as Protestant. The principle of the separation of church and state has been advantageous for both. The demise of religious practice in Europe is not just the result of secularism but also the result of excessive interference by religious leaders into the political sphere. The Roman Catholic Church has succumbed in the past to religious totalitarianism and there are still strains of totalitarianism at in the Church today evidenced in the unwillingness of Church leaders to engage in genuine dialogue with the faithful in the pew.

The Second Vatican Council re-defined the Church as the ‘people of God’ clearly distinguishing its primary spiritual mission from its political role. However, although separate from government it is not detached or disinterested in the common good, public or political. It is an instrument of a spiritual liberation that also affects the common good. In fact, it can be and often is an agent for social change, the defender of the poor, champion of peace and the sacrament of God’s love for all people no matter the political state in which they reside. We do indeed hold a dual citizenship.

On the other hand, the state can hold religious institutions responsible for ethical behavior, public morality and accountable in the application of just laws.

Extremism at either end of the religious or political spectrum is tyranny and can only lead to the abuse of power and violence of one kind or another and the end does not justify the means. Our God is not a God of tyranny—liberal or conservative.

God used the pagan king Cyrus to free the Jewish people from the political extremism of his predecessor and from extremist tendencies even among the Jews themselves during their captivity in Babylon. In fact, Isaiah tells us in the first reading, that God “anointed” Cyrus that in effect made him a messianic figure and a prototype of the redeemer. Is this an outrageous assertion or what!

In Matthew’s account of the exchange between Jesus, the Herodians and Pharisees, the issue is not the separation of church and state but the superiority of God’s dominion over all—secular rulers as well as religious leaders. There is no goodness in this world without ‘Godness.’

It is our mission as a Christian church not to rule the world but to surrender to the dominion of God under the guidance of Jesus who is our true shepherd. This makes us not subservient to any secular or religious institution but responsible to God for the wellbeing of creation and the wise use of its resources, responsible for the wellbeing of our neighbors near and far.

The great Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador and martyr put it this way in his final homily at Sunday Mass on March 24, 1980:

“Our hope for a new world must not deaden but increase our concern (and our efforts) to improve this world, where the new human family is taking shape and which will, in some way, be a dim pre-figuring of a new age. Although we must distinguish carefully between temporary progress and the growth of the kingdom of Christ, the former, nevertheless, has a lot to do with the latter in so far as it can contribute to improving society… May Jesus whose body was offered up and whose blood was shed for [humanity], give us that strength to offer ourselves in suffering and in sorrow, just as Jesus did not for himself but in order that the world might know true justice and peace.”

“We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.”

Within minutes of that homily, an assassin snuffed out Romero’s life but his voice will never be silenced.

“This [remains] our faith; this is the faith of our Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” [Response to Baptismal Promises, Baptismal Ritual]