Fifth Sunday of Lent
Our first extract is taken from the Book of Consolation, the second part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The Babylonian exile is at an end and the history of the earlier deliverance from Egypt is recalled. God's mighty deeds delivered their ancestors. But the poet then abruptly breaks off from his reminiscing: 'No need to recall the past; no need to think about what was done before.' He appeals to his people to forget the past and to look to the future: 'See. I am doing a new deed.'
Sometimes we think that people who have suffered great hurt in the past are faced with two options: either to wallow in past misery, to pick over the carcasses of injustice, or to take up the reins again and to begin life anew. But these are false options. The decision 'to take up the reins again and to begin life anew' is not a choice open to many victims. It assumes, more or less, that they were complicit in their own hurt. Those who hurt them have an essential role to play in their healing. The victim must be assured that his/her tormentors have seen the error of their ways, have repented, in other words, and apologized for their deeds. Until the perpetrator shows some appreciation of the terrible damage that his deeds have done, then there will be no healing for the victims. Until this happens, the past will be recalled with horror. Only when this happens will the victims of clerical sexual abuse be in a position to see 'the new thing' God is capable of doing in their lives.
This is one of the reasons why the Holy Father addressed a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland this morning. In a vicarious way, he enters into the dynamic of forgiveness. He recognizes that the innocent lives have been destroyed by abusing priests. "To recover from this grievous wound, the Church in Ireland must first acknowledge the serious sins committed against defenseless children. We must ensure that this will never happen again." If God is do 'do a new thing' in the Irish Church, we must recognize the awful deeds visited on innocent children by criminal priests, and repent of them.
The Holy Father speaks very sternly to those who have abused. "You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres." However, our gospel today, the story of the woman taken in adultery, teaches us that even the greatest sinners are the objects of God's forgiveness and mercy. The Holy Father reiterates this message in his letter: Continuing his address to abusers, he makes this appeal: "At the same time, God's justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy."
The contrast between the old Law of Moses and the New Law of Jesus is obvious. In the dispensation of Jesus, the sinner, not the law is given primacy. Paul elaborates on this theme in our second reading today. As a Jew, he would have had personal experience of striving for perfection through observance of the law. He now sees this as so much rubbish. The only perfection worth striving for is the perfection that comes from faith in Jesus Christ.
The forgiving figure of Jesus was hopelessly obscured by this obsessive legalism. As with St Paul, true freedom is found in an acceptance of the fact that we are in pilgrimage to Christ and perfection. We have not yet arrived, as the law would presume. Toe paraphrase Paul, the sinner and 'the sinned against' will strive to heal the past and strain ahead for what is yet to come. In this direction lie true repentance, divine forgiveness, and resurrection.