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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.

Sixth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Sunday May 17, 2009

In all things, charity

It continues to astound me how the Scriptures come to life over and over again under different circumstances, age upon age. No matter how familiar I may be with a particular passage or combination of texts, life experiences continue to influence the way I read or hear the text proclaimed at worship. This is particularly true on special occasions such as baptism, weddings, anniversaries, graduations and funerals. This may be attributed to the fact that on these occasions, the congregation is present not so much to fulfill a religious obligation but freely as it were, in order to celebrate or find deeper meaning in life through the lens of special events.

Since Easter, we have been ‘pondering’ Luke’s description of the early post-resurrection communities in and around Jerusalem and as they expanded to Macedonia and eventually to Rome. Although he tells us that the early Church—more likely a movement within Judaism rather than a formal institution —was “at peace,” it was far from peaceful. I suppose he meant that the believers were ‘convicted,’ that is, confident believers.

Nevertheless they experienced some ambiguity in the application of the Christian message to new believers of different cultures and customs. The first believers were Jews who retained their Jewish culture with its rituals and customs. However, the Greek-speaking Jews received the message a little differently than their counter-parts in Jerusalem and the Greek gentiles at Antioch in Pisidia received it still differently than the Jews. For example, the Apostles needed to decide whether or not circumcision should be imposed on gentile converts to Christianity. There was no doubt in Peter’s mind that Cornelius, a Roman centurion and former pagan, and his household had received the gift of the Holy Spirit to which he, Peter, believed he must defer. And so he did not impose circumcision and exempted himself from the customary Jewish dietary law. In today’s Church, the Pope would reprimand him but Peter was the first Pope!

There are other references to circumcision and dietary laws in the Acts of the Apostles and in the writings of St. Paul. Circumcision was a major issue for early believers. The Jews and some of the apostles with them said that circumcision should be imposed on gentile converts while others who were more sympathetic to the Greeks said, “no, it was not necessary for salvation.” (I think one could make the case that this issue was even more controversial than mandatory celibacy. Could it be akin to the issue of women’s ordination?)

So naturally they formed a committee and eventually consulted with the authorities in Jerusalem, which in those days was the center of Christendom. The decision was against mandatory circumcision. Adherence to the Jewish dietary practices was sufficient. In the face of ambiguity, compromise set the pace and kept the peace. Not everyone was happy with the change but eventually all deferred to the will and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

This is just one example of adaptability in the early Church.

Triggered by the scandal of the priest in Florida who was pictured with his ‘date’ on the cover of a tabloid magazine last week, Fox News commentator, Lou Dobbs, invited two priests – one a celibate convert who became a Catholic in protest to the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. The other priest was noted writer and author, Anthony Padovano, a priest who was dispensed from his vows and no longer functioning canonically as an active priest. The segment was just long enough for a strong case to be made for optional rather than mandatory celibacy. For at least half of the life of the Church, there were married priests and the reasons for the imposition of mandatory celibacy were neither traditional nor deeply theological. Quite frankly, the defense of celibacy offered by the celibate priest was more embarrassing than cogent. Ironically, the married priest made a stronger case for optional celibacy than the celibate. In any case, a married priesthood has existed in the Eastern discipline of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries and there are many good reasons why it could work within the western discipline of the Church. It is curious that there have been fewer clerical scandals in the Eastern Church within married priesthood than in the Western Church bound my mandatory priestly celibacy.

We would do well to take a second look at the way the early Church evolved and functioned as it gradually became acclimated to early believers, both Jews and gentiles and to other cultures as the Church expanded west toward Rome and east toward Asia.

The Church as a human institution is an living organism that can stagnate unless it engages its members and even those who are not yet members in a dialogue of mind and heart about the many ways the Gospel message can be heard and lived. In the words of St. Augustine, “In essentials, unity; in non essentials, diversity; in all things, charity.”

In his gospel and in his first epistle, John stated that faithfulness is rooted in love—not the euphoria of puppy love but tried and true love that comes only when tried and tested by the hard knocks of life. A good marriage is subject to many challenges, some of which demand radical changes in life-style. Children bring to a marriage, new perspectives and wise parents eventually learn from their children, gaining new insights into what makes love long and lasting, what makes love strong enough to endure the test of time.

In the popular marriage inventory, Prepare-Enrich, engaged couples are queried, “Will romance fade in your lives?” Most of them respond with enthusiasm, “Of course not!” Yeah, right! Perhaps the question should be phrased, “Will romance change as love deepens?” Indeed it will and indeed it does!

In his first letter to the Corinthians St Paul wrote, “When all is said and done, there remain these three: faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love,” and I would add, “flexibility!”

Many wars have been fought in the name of religion. However, true religion is not characterized by the willingness to go to war but the courage to stand for peace. In the end we will be judged not by our physical power or prowess but by our complicity with evil in the face of our capacity for love.

Mother Theresa remains a model of what unbiased love can achieve. She was not always successful, but ultimately the measure of success is not in the achievement but in the will to be faithful and in the recognition that when love prevails, everything is gift and all is grace.

More recently, in the popular book, Three Cups of Tea – On man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin [Penguin Publishing Co, New York, 2006] Greg Mortenson demonstrates the kind of gutsy love that comes from climbing mountains, an apt metaphor for the living of a full Christian life.s

It is for this reason that we need to keep our tables connected — this table and your table and the table of humanity too. We need to come here every week to break open the bread of God’s word listening to every word through the lens of our experience; to be astounded by the way the Bible continues to speak to us in season and out of season.

Life is full of ambiguity but we need not be ambivalent about ambiguity. God will continue to speak to us and answers will come and we will be empowered to faithfulness despite the changes in externals and institutional discipline.

“Love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that God has loved us.” and God plays no favorites. God’s love is impartial.

But when all is said and done, in the end there are three things that matter, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is?

Flexibility!

_________

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