- We've got to a very serious moment
in our reflections about the prostitute, the adulteress,
who meets Jesus.
It's an important moment
as we have decided to put ourselves in her situation,
replace with our name her name, the name we don't know.
So we guess that it is about each of us.
I'm standing in front of Jesus and I have all the rights to be terrified
because I know all too well that He knows my sins,
He saw them, if only because there are many accusers around me,
able to list all my offences.
It's a spiritual situation that many of us probably experience constantly before God.
I am standing in front of Him and I have got every reason to be trembling with fear.
- But look what a fantastic clever thing Jesus did.
The Pope points it out: Jesus begins by staying silent,
enters in that space of silence,
of non-talking, which, as Francis says,
wakes up the consciences both of that woman and her accusers.
- Yes, because suddenly it becomes apparent that before this God's tribunal,
where they found themselves,
it was not only that adulteress to be judged,
but also those who dragged her there.
And when the Pope reflects on Jesus' silence,
the fact that Jesus isn't asking any questions
nor is he teaching for the time being,
I have the impression that one could think that this silence might be terrifying.
- One could get frightened...
When God stays silent,
the first thought that comes to mind of a sinner is
"God is upset with me, God does not want to know me anymore,
God is staying silent to punish me,
God is staying silent because He can't stand the sight of me,
He doesn't want to have any contacts with me."
We've chosen this place to talk about it because on top of Castel Sant'Angelo
there is a statue of Saint Michael the Archangel holding a sword.
That's how for centuries people imagined the wrath of God,
God so cross as to be ready to exterminate whole cities,
send diseases over people,
God that does not want to listen to me
nor does he want to talk to me, or he talks to me through such terrifying signs.
But, on the other hand, we have Pope Francis' vision,
who says that this silence of God
touched the conscience so deeply,
maybe it was there precisely for that reason,
in order to touch, to strike the most delicate chord in a person,
so much so to provoke conversion.
- And the accusers cannot stand it.
They go away.
And in the life of the woman caught in adultery comes
a moment of a wonderful confession:
Jesus says
"Has no one condemned you?"
And she replies "No, Lord", it's her confession.
She stood in that place and it is her confession.
But in order for such a situation to occur,
you have to free yourself from other people's judgement.
When, as some exegetes say,
Jesus started to write in the dust with his finger the sins of those who brought her,
and they went away,
St. Augustine says that "two of them alone remained:
mercy with misery"
Misericordia et misera.
And we stand in that place,
we can stand it that place only if we free ourselves from other people's judgement.
- In the place of the adulteress? - Yes, the woman caught in adultery.
Free from the judgement from outside,
by people that surround us, as it was in that woman's life,
by the people who brought her, but also from the judgement that is in us.
We can sometimes be the most severe judges of ourselves
and it prevents us from taking that place.
And only in the mystery of Misericordia et misera
human judgement crumbles, all human judgement goes away.
- So, in a word, if I take the place of the adulteress,
for the first time in my life I can say to myself:
"No one has condemned me",
because I haven't condemned myself,
people are powerless in their judgement of me,
and I meet God, who does not condemn me either.
There is no other place in the universe,
in which I could stand and say
"There is truly no one who has condemned me".
- Yes, I experienced it in the life of my late parish priest,
when his Misericordia et misera moment,
the moment of breaking free from human judgement was his death.
He came to our parish almost eleven years before his death.
He came to a parish in the mountain, where...
I don't know whether you are aware,
but in the mountains the most important thing for the highlanders
is that things are tidy.
So the new parish priest came and started to tidy things up,
he renovated the church inside,
outside, built some paths, car parks, the fence at the cemetery,
the cemetery chapel, mortuary fridge in that chapel.
The highlanders were over the moon!
They were giving donation, no one was complaining.
And in his 11th year, he started to renovate the presbytery
And it all started!
"He is building himself a house with our money",
"He's building himself a castle",
money stopped coming in
The parish priest was ill,
but didn't tell anyone, he had an aneurism in his head, impossible to operate on,
and he had known for years that he could die at any moment.
That he could live for many years or die at any moment.
And when people had dragged him through all the mud...
for instance, when under the pressure of the growing aneurism,
he would fall asleep during the mass when he was concelebrating
and another priest was preaching,
people would say
"Oh, he has diabetes but doesn't go to the doctor's as she would say that he has been drinking".
So, anything they could think of, they would say about him.
Suddenly, the priest dies.
And imagine the last scene from his parish life:
when the last thing that he had ordered for the church
were the sculptures of the Stations of the Cross,
large wood sculptures, fruit of years of work,
and the company that was making the sculptures didn't know that the priest had died.
And on the day when they were bringing the coffin with the parish priest through the central nave,
the employees brought in the last sculpture,
the Deposition from the Cross, through the side nave.
I thought it had been set up this way to move people's hearts but it was mere coincidence.
As it turned out,
when the bishop opened the parish priest's will at the funeral,
he hadn't spent a penny on himself,
he took money only for food and clothes,
or bare necessities, and all the rest he put into the parish.
Even the car he was driving,
he had left it to the parish to cover any eventual bills that might occur in case of his sudden death.
And those who were holding the biggest stones weren't able to go to the cemetery,
but ran away from the church to their homes.
That was his Misericordia et misera,
the mystery that made him completely free from people's judgement
and revealed the kind of man he really was.
- When God stays silent, we might be terrified,
but if we listen carefully to this silence,
we will hear the voice of mercy,
the beat of the merciful heart
and our accusers become silent because
God talks with words full of mercy.
For more infomation >> Grande Fratello Vip, Giulia De Lellis a Verissimo: Sono piena di amici gay, bevo dai loro bicchieri - Duration: 2:38. 
For more infomation >> 6 creme naturali per trattare la psoriasi - Duration: 7:41. 
For more infomation >> Ignazio sulla scena dell'armadio: Mi spiace per Cecilia, purtroppo ne esce sempre peggio - Duration: 3:30. 
For more infomation >> remede naturel guérir maladie Remèdes Naturels contre les vergetures - c0ns3ils - Duration: 9:24. 
For more infomation >> TWICE "Heart Shaker" Cover 日本語字幕- 歌ってみた(カバー) - Duration: 1:32. 
For more infomation >> Suzuki Jimny - Duration: 1:08. 
For more infomation >> Seat Altea - Duration: 1:09. 
For more infomation >> YouTube TV - Coming Soon
For more infomation >> Renault Kangoo 1.5 dCi Black Edition (R-LINK/Airco/R.schuifdeur) - Duration: 0:58. 
For more infomation >> Renault Clio 1.5 dCi Limited (R-LINK/Climate/Cruise/16''LMV) - Duration: 0:59. 
For more infomation >> Renault Scénic TCE 130pk Intens (20"LMV/R-LINK/Pack Park Assist) - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Volvo V50 1.6 D2 R-Design (LEER!!!!/Glazen dak/NAV./Climate/PDC/17''LMV) - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> Renault Twingo SCE 70pk Dynamique (VOUWDAK!!/R-link/Climate/Cruise/PDC/16''LMV) - Duration: 0:42. 
For more infomation >> Renault Clio DCI 90 Intens NIEUW/ VOORRAAD/ CAMERA/ R-link/ Climate/ PDC/ 16''LMV - Duration: 0:42. 
For more infomation >> 生まれつき形成不全の障害をもつ猫が新たな猫生に向け準備ＯＫ！【いい話】 - Duration: 2:38. 
For more infomation >> Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas - Duration: 22:29. 
For more infomation >> Opel Insignia 1.4T ECOFL. 103KW SP.T. BNS+ - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Gone Boy - Duration: 21:15. 
For more infomation >> 8 BEAUTY HACKS Using Vaseline !! Must Know | PrettyPriyaTV - Duration: 4:32. 
For more infomation >> Voici comment le faire - 5 erreurs lors du lavage des vêtements à la main - Duration: 3:51. 
For more infomation >> Celebrity Edition: Gilbert Gottfried/Dave Foley - Duration: 20:48. 
No comments:
Post a Comment