H. Leonel de las Cuevas, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Lord, give me the light so that I may see as You see. Inflame my heart so that I may give myself in love as You give Yourself. Grant me humility of spirit so that I may always recognize myself as a small beggar who needs You so much. Give me hope so that I may never doubt Your love and mercy.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the holy Gospel according to John 8:1-11
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the Mount of Olives, and at dawn he appeared again in the temple, where the crowd approached him; and he, sitting among them, taught them.
Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, and placing her before him, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Moses commands us in the law to stone such women. What do you say?”.
They were asking him this to trap him and be able to accuse him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. But as they insisted on their question, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one who is without sin among you throw the first stone.” He bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
Hearing those words, the accusers began to slip away one by one, starting with the oldest, until they left Jesus and the woman alone, standing beside him.
Then Jesus straightened himself up and asked her, “Woman, where are those who accused you? Did no one condemn you?” She answered him, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Today's Gospel presents the encounter between Jesus and a very special woman. She was a woman who, by living in Jerusalem, was certainly well aware that what she was doing was considered by all the people to be a grave offense to God. With all the humiliation of having been caught in adultery, she is taken and brought before Jesus. To the Pharisees, she was a woman unworthy of God, estranged from Him, who deserved to be stoned. However, despite being considered learned, they were far from knowing the reality about God.
When Jesus looks at the woman, the first thing He observes is not a sinner who has offended Him, but a beloved daughter whose name is deeply engraved in His heart. Jesus feels great compassion as He sees her in a state of misery, deceived by sin and devalued by men. Jesus cannot help but be moved and desire to cleanse this daughter of His of everything that had become defiled.
There is a great difference between this woman and the Pharisees. The woman, humbled, was aware of her misery, her weakness was hidden from no one, least of all from God. Being needy, spiritually and materially, it was her smallness that moved the Lord and poured out his mercy, even when she did not even explicitly ask for his forgiveness. The Pharisees, on the other hand, showed the hardness of their hearts because they were blinded to recognizing both the fragility of others and their own. Jesus shows them that they are not clean either, and this offends their pride, and they leave.
God knows we have miseries and is not scared by them, but it is we who need humility to show ourselves before Him as we are. With the wound open so He can heal it.
«Jesus“ interlocutors are enclosed in the twists and turns of legalism and want to lock the Son of God in their perspective of judgment and condemnation. But He did not come into the world to judge and condemn, but to save and offer people a new life. And how does Jesus react to this test? First of all, he remains silent for a while, and bends down to write with his finger on the ground, as if to remember that the only Lawgiver and Judge is God who had written the Law on the stone. And then he says: ”He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her“. In this way, Jesus appeals to the conscience of those men: they felt they were ”champions of justice», but He calls them to the conscience of their condition of sinful men, by which they cannot claim for themselves the right to life or death of others. At that moment one after another, beginning with the oldest, that is, those most expert of their own miseries, they all left, renouncing to stone the woman. This scene also invites each of us to be aware that we are sinners, and to drop from our hands the stones of denigration and condemnation, of gossip, which we would sometimes like to hurl against others. When we gossip about others, we throw stones, we are like these."
(Angelus of H.H. Francis, April 7, 2019).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
To go to confession, if I need to, with great faith that God is waiting to meet me there and with humility to recognize and accept who I am, trusting that His grace can heal me.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
