Is 43: 16-21; Ps. 126:1-6; Phil. 3:8-14; Jn. 8:1-11
Gracious and merciful is the Lord to those who seek him… “with your whole heart”. With God there is no bartering, no compromise, no holding back, only a complete giving of our ourselves heart, mind, and will. This is impossible to do alone in our humanity but with God all things are possible if we just trust in him, he will bring us closer to himself for that is his will. God is so gracious and honors our humanity that we live in freedom to choose to give ourselves to him or to remain captives of our limited capacities. God is also so merciful that in our freedom to fail as often as we do, he waits to give us his mercy if we return to him.
Gracious is the Lord in making all things new, merciful in his love to forgive us of our sins. God does not ask of us anything less than he gives us of himself. This was the example and message of Jesus on the cross. There is something “new” through Jesus and it is the way to the love of God.
With his whole heart God rescues his people of old opening by “way in the sea” he save them. All creation obeys him and he does it for you and I with his whole heart. This is the love of a Father who is perfect in all things. The Lord does great things for us but often we lack that same love of heart for him. Where is our thanksgiving? Where is our joy for his gift of our life? We have set aside the first and greatest commandment to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul in order to live our lives our way.
To come to Christ with our whole heart puts everything else in perspective. It makes everything else easier to accept. St. Paul says he considers everything else “rubbish” in comparison to the “supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. Life begins as if it was all about us until we come to realize it is all about God and his plan of salvation for us. We build a treasure on earth only to see it age, decay, and need to be replaced until we end up giving away what is left. What we are left with is our hope for heaven if we have lived a godly life. To be godly is to give our whole heart to him and he does to us.
Gracious and merciful is Jesus to the woman “caught in adultery”. The accusers claim righteousness by law but Jesus makes clear if we are held to the law, it then applies equally to all present, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” None of us are righteous under the law and we all are subject to death from our sin. We live by the mercy of God who forgives us of our sins if we also follow his will to avoid sin. The will of God is always to call us to perfection. Perfection can only happen when we join our will to his will, put on the mind of God by his revelation given to us in his word, and surrender our whole heart to his love. As we have heard in the past “Jesus cannot save us without us” and we certainly cannot save ourselves by ourselves.
It has often been speculated what did Jesus write on the ground with his finger? Some suspect the sins of those present but perhaps something brief and appropriate would be “mercy comes to the merciful”. They were ready to condemn the woman but in doing so were they ready to hold themselves to the same standard? Apparently not! We all need the mercy of God and he is gracious in pardoning us if we humble ourselves and ask.
I always find it interesting how many will judge themselves as “a good person” with little sense of being a sinner. Any act of free will to sin is justified as “being human” with the excuse that “no one is perfect”. Then there is the weakest of all excuses “I have not killed anybody”. Somehow this now sets the sinner free by normalizing all other behavior. Sadly, what is lost is the truth that all humanity is a fallen nature in which we are seeking to escape our sinfulness by regaining our sanctity, becoming holy as God is holy. Our “normal” is not God’s normal for us.
Lent is God’s call to come and receive his mercy. We demonstrate our true desire for it by our active participation in prayer, fasting and almsgiving, by reflecting on his passion with the Stations of the Cross, and in our commitment to the sacramental life of the Church. Mercy is not simply forgiveness, it is a cleansing of our soul, a healing of our wounds, and a renewal of our love for God. In mercy we are made whole by the gracious love of God. God’s graciousness is that we all become his saints, fully human but also divine in his image.
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