Parish Bulletin Easter Triduum

Bulletin for Palm Sunday

The Men Caught in Denial

Last year there was an article in the Broome Advertiser about a girl who had been convicted of lewd behaviour. This had occurred with man in Chinatown, but surprisingly, only she had been charged. The man, who was unnamed in the report, was untouched by the scandal. The woman carried the whole burden of the public humiliation and guilt, while the man was able to hide behind anonymity. Others, who pointed accusingly at the young woman, were able to feign outrage at her and her actions in an effort to deflect attention from their own sins. When I spoke with her after the Court appearance, she tried to shake off the knowledge that she had been used in a game bigger than herself, had been treated as an object, a statistic in a ‘get tough’ campaign, rather than a person.

The woman in depicted in the Gospel of John is the similar.

The Pharisees are looking for opportunities to trap Jesus, and the convenience of the woman caught in flagranti  is an opportunity too good to pass. She is thrown, partially dressed, into the middle of the scene. Under the Jewish law she faces death, but her life is not important to them, her dignity is denied, and her partner ignored. This is not about her, this is about point scoring: “She is being instrumentalized for the purposes of the scribes and Pharisees so that they might have some charge to bring against him.”[i]

Jesus realises that there is a person on front of him, not an exhibit. He changes the parameters so that it becomes personal. We don’t know what he wrote in the ground and it probably does not matter, but it provides the circuit breaker for the story. One commentator suggests that the writing in the dust signifies that judgments cannot be made from above or from outside ourselves: before standing in judgment over one another, they should look at their own behaviour.[ii] He looks up and asks if there is anyone present who has not sinned, which some have interpreted as referring to sexual sin.[iii] 

There is stunned silence.

In the midst of this terrible scene, the Holy Spirit enters.  The accusers notice that there is a human being in front of them, not an object. St Augustine writes: This, unquestionably, is the voice of justice, justice that pierced those men like a javelin. Looking into themselves, they realized their guilt, and one by one they all went out. Two remained behind: the miserable woman, and Mercy.[iv] Unable to confront their sinfulness, the men slink away.

Jesus, the incarnation of mercy, addresses her as a person, not an object, and she reverently addresses him as Kyrie, Lord. Jesus does not ignore her sin, for it is real, just as our sins are real. Christ, who has entered her life, now allows her to see, through gentleness and compassion, that she needs healing for her brokenness.

We too need that same healing for our brokenness and sin. Are we to stand and accept his forgiveness, or walk away like the Pharisees?

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Lent Year C, 17th March 2013, OLQP Broome.

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[i] Harrington, Daniel, The Gospel of John, Liturgical Press, 1998, 261.

[ii] Fallon, Michael, The Gospel according to St John, Chevalier Press, Kensington, 1998, 170

[iii] Harrington, Daniel, op cit, 261

[iv] Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John 33, 4-6. 8: CCL 36, 307-310

Parish Bulletin for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Pope Francis

Parish Bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Possibility of Healing

'Jealous Tree',
Roberta Fernandez, Mulan, WA. 2005.

When this painting was given to me by a young woman from Mulan, a community on Gregory Salt Lake in the Great Sandy Desert, the heart shapes intrigued me. I discovered that they are special leaves of a vine that grows alongside clay pans  They are called jealous leaves. When the young woman told me the story of the painting she explained:

When you get jealous of someone, you need to go out, find some of these leaves and eat them, and the bitter taste makes you forget your jealousy and anger. Then you can go back home quietly.[i]

The leaves indeed do taste bitter, and the process of obtaining them makes a person reconsider why they were jealous, or for that matter, envious or angry. The process does the healing, and the eating provides the ritual context. It is a local representation of the famous parable of Jesus to which we have just listened.

The parable can be called that of the Lost Son, the Prodigal Son, the Loving Father or the Unforgiving Brother. Each of these emphasises a part of the story. The younger son was attracted by the bright lights, by what was over the fence, by what others had seemingly without strings attached; he did the unthinkable and sold his ancestral inheritance, (sold the family castle, if you will) even while his father lived. In Jewish culture of the day, doing so meant that he wished his father was dead. He departs the scene. The older brother stews in anger at the younger brother for his treachery, but does not deal with it and this anger slowly consumes his spirit. The younger brother finds life is not so wonderful away from family, love and support, but he knows he has well and truly burnt all his bridges. He has no place to move, and eventually stoops to the lowest of low and lives with ritually unclean animals. Only the father has not been ruined by jealousy, anger and envy.  We are told that he waited patiently.

That is where the story would stop if the spirit of God was not present. I like to think that the father walking up and down, looking over the horizon, waiting for his son. Every now and then, when his feelings become a bit raw and considering the hurt done to him, I picture him stooping down to pick up a bunch of jealous leaves. Chewing the leaves, the bitterness reminds him of the reality of the situation: Yes he has been wronged, but he still has a son somewhere out there, as well as an angry son at home whom he needs to help cure. The father is wise beyond belief.

So as the Spirit touches the son to return, the father he wished dead uses his God-given serenity to welcome and forgive him. Amazing! The older brother, however, did not accept the spirit, at least not by the end of the parable. The anger that has consumed all his energy now paralyses him outside the house.

In our journey through Lent the father leads us on a journey of life.

Lent is the time to practice eating jealous leaves, the time to drop our jealousies, envy and anger. Lent is the time to allow God to work within our lives, whether they are like the seemingly normal life of the elder brother with hidden unresolved issues, or whether they are younger brother, whose faults and follies are obvious to all. The fact is that most of us have a way to go before we can claim to enjoy the serenity of the father. To many of us it seems impossible in this life, and maybe it is, but the journey of Lent attests that we don’t need to allow our weaknesses and sin to hold us back. Through prayer, fasting and giving, with the help of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, healing is possible and transformative.

Around 450, Pope St Leo the Great urged his flock:

Dear friends, what the Christian should be doing at all times should be done now with greater care and devotion, so that the Lenten fast enjoined by the apostles may be fulfilled, not simply by abstinence from food but above all by the renunciation of sin.[ii]

This week, walk out and find a jealous leaf, chew it and see where it leads you in your faith journey!

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[i] Roberta Fernandez, 19^th November 2005, personal communication.

[ii] Sermo 6 de Quadragesima, 1-2: PL 54, 285-287.