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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.

Holy Thursday 2009

Thursday April 9, 2009

+ Holy Thursday

The ‘eighth commandment.’

Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15.

After he had finished washing their feet and had once again put on his outer garments, he reclined at table and said to them, “Do you understand what I have just done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example. What I have done for you, you should also do. [John 13:12-15]

As a pastor, the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper is the most soul-stirring liturgy of the entire year because it dramatizes not only the gift of Jesus life given in bread and wine to the apostles and to the Church down to our age, but it also epitomizes what the life of the Christian should be at the table of humanity.

I have read somewhere that the ‘washing of the feet’ or the ‘mandatum’ as it is called in the ritual, was close to being instituted as a sacrament. It certainly is sacramental – an occasion of grace that inspires us to be and do hat we ritualize at worship.

In a survey on expectations of the faithful for priests conducted several years ago, more than any other quality the faithful look for in their pastors is spiritual depth.

That’s a tall order – one that stretches me, as I’m sure it does all priests. On the other hand, I have been inspired and energized over and over again by so many ‘lay priests’ in the pew. In fact, the spirituality of the priest is rooted in the faith of the people in the pew. After all, it is baptism that unites all of us – women and men – baptized into the common priesthood of Christ.

Jesus’ instruction to his apostles to wash the feet of others was meant for every disciple, not just the ‘Twelve.’ This was more than a gesture to inspire. It was indeed a ‘mandatum,’ a command to do as he did.

Washing the feet of others can include anything from a spiritual or corporal work of mercy to the taking of a concrete positive action to change an oppressive political, economic or ecclesiastical system.

The people of L’Aquila in Italy know of what I speak. What can be a more dramatic observance of this sacred day than the rescue of someone buried beneath the rubble of an earthquake?

And what about the people who are building homes and installing fresh water supplies for the people in Guatemala? And what of the many people who bring healing to those afflicted with physical or mental illness?

The Eucharist was the setting for the washing of the feet because it is in the bread of Eucharist that we are joined as sisters and brothers in Christ becoming in fact, the bread that we eat. We are the Body of Christ. Amen.