{"id":1022,"date":"2013-03-17T10:01:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T14:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2013-03-17T10:01:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T14:01:08","slug":"judgment-and-condemnation-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/judgment-and-condemnation-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Judgment and Condemnation – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday in Lent, Year C<\/a>
\nIsaiah 43:16-21
\nPhilippians 3:8-14
\nJohn 8:1-11
\nMarch 17, 2013<\/p>\n

As Jesus continues his ministry to teach the people, once again the scribes and the Pharisees come to test Jesus.\u00a0 They come bringing the woman who was caught in adultery.<\/p>\n

They really don\u2019t care that she was caught in sin.\u00a0 I see this as another sin on their part, they are using the woman, ignoring the fact that she is human just like them, to trap Jesus by trying to get Jesus to violate the law.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t care about her shame or acting in judgment.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t fraternal correction they were seeking as stoning would result in death and there can be no correction after death.\u00a0 They wanted to get rid of Jesus and were willing to take it however they can get it.<\/p>\n

They cite the law that calls for stoning a woman caught in adultery.\u00a0 They don\u2019t care about the woman as a person and I\u2019m not sure they care about the law for what it really is, a tool to follow Jesus.<\/p>\n

I should clarify that.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that they reject law in general.\u00a0 But they have blinders on.\u00a0 They see the law only in their own terms.\u00a0 They use it for their own good.<\/p>\n

The law really did call to stone such a woman but it was more a human law that said this.\u00a0 If Jesus says don\u2019t follow the law, they have him on blasphemy.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows what they are up to but basically ignores them.\u00a0 They persist.<\/p>\n

Jesus is not shaken.\u00a0 He simply stays to them, \u201cLet the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one casts the first stone.<\/p>\n

Some of the Pharisees and scribes were probably tempted to say they didn\u2019t have any sin.\u00a0 But they don\u2019t.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 comment makes them think, realizing they are not perfect.<\/p>\n

One by one they went away, all afraid that if they cast the first stone somebody would accuse them of sin.\u00a0 They leave one by one until they are all gone.<\/p>\n

When Jesus looks up, they are all gone.\u00a0 He says to the woman \u201cWhere are they?\u00a0 Has no one\u00a0condemned you?\u201d<\/p>\n

She answers no.<\/p>\n

Now, the woman was caught in the very act of adultery.\u00a0 There was no denying what she had done but Jesus does not condemn her.<\/p>\n

So does that mean she really didn\u2019t sin after all?\u00a0 Does it mean Jesus didn\u2019t see her adultery as sin?<\/p>\n

No, it never says that.<\/p>\n

What does Jesus say?\u00a0 \u201cGo, and from now on do not sin any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Jesus is telling her not to sin any more, it means that she has sinned in the past.\u00a0 Knowing her sin, Jesus points to future without sin.<\/p>\n

Why do we judge?<\/p>\n

We are called to help one another avoid sin.\u00a0 Stoning would not help people avoid sin.\u00a0 Once they were stoned, they would be dead without opportunity to correct their behavior.\u00a0 They would be without opportunity to reconcile with God.<\/p>\n

Judgment is bad.\u00a0 What we can do is \u201cfraternal correction.\u201d\u00a0 Here we might point out a person\u2019s sin but not to condemn them but rather solely to help them change, to change for the future.<\/p>\n

The past is done and we cannot change it.\u00a0 We are not perfect and our lives reflect that.\u00a0 As Paul writes, we can never be righteous on our own but only with God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n

It takes effort and not just once.\u00a0 Paul speaks of how he strives to continue his pursuit to hope.\u00a0 Coming to follow Jesus in all things is a difficult task.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we take baby steps.\u00a0 Sometimes we take huge steps.\u00a0 If we want to change, we cannot go around and judge everyone.<\/p>\n

We can try to help each other change but we can\u2019t make them.\u00a0 We offer correction.\u00a0 We offer support.\u00a0 But we do not judge lest we be judged ourselves.<\/p>\n

Before we cast any stones, we have our own sins to worry about.<\/p>\n

We need to stop living in the past and look to the future, always straining forward to come closer to God who is our goal.<\/p>\n

The past is the past.\u00a0 Jesus offers us a clean slate in reconciliation.\u00a0 Jesus invites us to look forward to see Heaven as our goal.<\/p>\n

Who have you judged?\u00a0 Was they sin any worse than yours?\u00a0 Do you look them in their past or do you give them an opportunity to move forward?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday in Lent, Year C Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:8-14 John 8:1-11 March 17, 2013 As Jesus continues his ministry to teach the people, once again the scribes and the Pharisees come to test Jesus.\u00a0 They come bringing the woman who was caught in adultery. They really don\u2019t care that she was caught in sin.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Judgment and Condemnation – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-gu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}