Dear Friends,
For the last seven weeks Pope Francis’ book, The Name of God is Mercy, has been on the New York Times Best Seller List. In the introduction to the book, Andrea Tornelli recounts a homily by Pope Francis on the woman caught in adultery:
“Their only objective was to ‘test Jesus, to lay a trap. They didn’t care about the woman, they didn’t care about adultery. On the contrary, maybe even some of them were themselves adulterers.’ And so Jesus, who wanted ‘to be alone with the woman and speak to her heart,’ answered, ‘Let the one among you without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And then, ‘they went away one by one’ after hearing those words. ‘The Gospel, with a certain amount of irony, says that they went away, one by one, starting with the eldest: clearly they owed a lot of money to the heavenly bank!’
Then came the moment of Jesus Confessor. He is left ‘alone with the woman’ who was placed in the midst…Then he stood up and looked at the woman who was full of shame and said to her: ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ We are alone, you and I. You are before God. With no accusations, no gossip: you and God. The woman – Francis went on to note in his homily – did not claim to be a victim of false accusations; she did not defend herself by saying ‘I didn’t commit adultery.’ No. she acknowledged her sin and answered Jesus by saying, ‘No one condemned me Lord.’ And so Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.’ Francis concluded, Jesus forgives. But here is something more than forgiveness. Because as a confessor, Jesus goes beyond the law. The law stated that she must be punished. What’s more, Jesus was pure and could have himself cast the first stone. But he goes further than that…mercy is something difficult to understand: it does not erase sins…but he defends the sinner from a just condemnation…this applies to all of us…God’s mercy is like a great light of love and tenderness because God forgives not with a decree, but with a caress.”
I agree with Francis that mercy is hard to understand. That is why we have been listening to outstanding speakers week after week during Lent to help us to enter into the mystery of God’s mercy.
There are only two speakers left for our Lenten journey, so please join us these final two Thursdays. This week, Susan Naatz will be sharing her thoughts with us on “Mercy is Divine, Compassion has a Human Face.” Susan Naatz is the Associate Vice-Provost for Mission and Ministry at Creighton University. Before coming to Creighton she worked for 25 years in the Archdiocese of Omaha serving three Catholic parishes. Susan’s husband, John, is the Principal of Creighton Prep Jesuit. Susan is an excellent presenter, and I am sure you will enjoy her insights on mercy.
On another bit of news, I signed the purchase agreement for the Christ Child building this past week. If all goes well with the title search, etc., we will take possession of the building on April 1st. I have some plans for use of the building, but would appreciate any ideas you have. The more minds the better! We will start work on the building almost immediately after we take possession. If you have time to share with the cleanup and repair of the building, that would be greatly appreciated.
Peace,
Fr. Damian