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Spiritual Reflection
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March 20, 2010 | | | |  | Spiritual Reflection for Fifth Sunday of Lent
March 21, 2010
You are running late, so your right foot steps hard on the gas pedal as you run the red light. Suddenly, lights begin flashing in your rearview mirror as a police car comes up behind you. As you try to collect your thoughts, you pray that the officer will show you mercy. And as if miraculously, he cites you with only a warning and lets you go your way.
Sometimes we view the scribes and Pharisees in today's Gospel reading as police officers who enforced the law with no mercy-the exact opposite of the officer described above who was kind and lenient. If that's how we view these religious leaders, it would be only natural for us to imagine them walking away from this scene disappointed. But let's imagine another possibility.
Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone. (John 8:7)
Jesus had just hinted that he knew all their sins, but he didn't call them out. Instead, he treated them with the same mercy that he showed to the adulterous woman. One by one they walked away. Perhaps some of them were struck by Jesus' fairness and calm. Maybe some even began to follow him. Maybe there were genuine conversions that day, all because of mercy.
We are all sinners, and we deserve condemnation. Because of God's undying love, we have all been spared condemnation. According to the Law of Moses, that woman should have died. But Jesus set her free. Today, he is waiting to set you free as well. So gaze at the cross and marvel at the mercy of God. With all the gratitude you can muster, confess that you have been given the promise of eternal life! And if you want to throw a stone at another person, even if they deserve it, try to let it go, knowing that Jesus will never throw one at you.
(Excerpt from: The WORD Among Us) | | | | | |
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 Our Lady of Lourdes - In 1858, in a grotto, near Lourdes in southern France, Our Lady appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a young peasant girl. She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision, and told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto. When Bernadette dug at a spot designated by the apparition, a spring began to flow. The water from this still flowing spring has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify. Lourdes has become the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. |
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