Our Lady of La Salette Welcomes You to Her Shrine! Come...Be Blessed!: Daily Lenten Reflections - Thirtieth First Day "Go and Sin No More!" Monday, March 23, 2015

3/23/2015

Daily Lenten Reflections - Thirtieth First Day "Go and Sin No More!" Monday, March 23, 2015

“Go and Sin no more!”

The readings from Prophet Daniel and the Gospel have women accused of adultery.

These women were easy victims of the lusts of men.

Were they not ashamed of themselves for these men were equally culpable?

Jesus had some strong words to them: “Anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts.”

He does not say ‘curiously’ or admiringly, not even ‘brazenly’. Jesus goes to the heart of lust, which is desire. “With an eye to having her” might translate his words best.

The helplessness of women before men who view them as possessions, ego-supports, or proofs of masculinity is what Jesus attacks.

Gerald Sloyan says that the “Gospels tell only of Jesus’ concern for woman had, woman used, woman rejected”.

Augustine of Hippo once remarked “ let the sinners be punished, yes but not by sinners. Let the law be carried out, but only by lawmakers.

This, unquestionably, is the voice of justice, justice that pierced those men like a javelin. Looking into themselves, in the Gospel, they realized their guilt, and one by one they all went out.

Thomas Merton would say, “ Too much searching conceals the thing we really ought to find. Nor is it certain that we have any urgent obligation to find sin in ourselves.

How much sin is kept hidden from us by God, in mercy?

After which God hides it even from God!” Jesus has bad and short memory for our sins for God indeed desires to save us and not destroy.

Jesus tells us as he did to the woman who was guilty of immorality: “Go and sin no more”.

We see that the Lord does indeed pass sentence, but it is sin he condemns, not people.