From the Inside Out

Dear Parish Family,

Believe it or not, next week is Palm Sunday, then follows Holy Week, including the Holy Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter). We are approaching these special days to remember and to live out our faith. In the Biblical worldview, memory does not merely reminisce, but makes present again. So we have the chance to enter into these mysteries as they are made present again for us. Please set aside extra time for prayer and for the special liturgies during these beautifully powerful days. Given what lies ahead, we are wrapping up our message series Soul Work this week.

We meet Jesus in the heart of Jerusalem, the temple area, teaching. The leaders bring before Jesus a woman, caught in adultery, as a type of examination (see John 8:1-11). They ask him to examine her case, while they examine Him. We might ask where the man is who, presumably, was also caught in the very act? A worthy question, although I fear that for our purposes and for what Jesus seeks to teach, that avenue leads into the weeds and is not a path to true discovery. 

Jesus’ first words in the episode are telling, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” It seems we have come full circle. Our series began six weeks ago, as we approached Ash Wednesday. The Gospel (Luke 6:39-45) included this question: “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” We were reminded to focus on our own stuff and to not fixate on the stuff of others. Who knows what Jesus writes in the sand, but it leads the elders to cease their crusade and allow the woman to live. Perhaps, Jesus invites them to attend to their own challenges, and this poor embarrassed woman is left alone with Jesus. While Jesus truly has the right to condemn her, He does not. Instead, Jesus pardons her with the admonition: go and sin no more. Everyone in the Gospel is invited to conversion, to focus on any obstacles that might keep them from pursuing holiness, and to set on the right path.

That has been our project for Lent - Soul Work - striving to build holy habits and root out unhealthy ones, really from the inside out. Three key steps include: 1) being prayerful: invite God to share with you His plans for your conversion; 2) being specific: behavior change is hard and requires precise and consistent intervention; vague desires stay just that; 3) and being humble: admitting that change is hard, but that if we change just a little bit each week, after a year we will be in a very different place.

As we wrap up this focus on Soul Work, we are left with the question of lasting change. Have I really changed for the better during this time of Lent? Why is it so hard to effect true and lasting transformation in my life? What improvements do I want to continue to build on moving forward?

One way to look at the challenge of personal change is our examination of conscience before the Sacrament of Confession. Why is it that by and large, we reflect on and confess the same sins each time we seek the Lord’s forgiveness? In a way, it is comforting to recognize that these are my sins (and I probably will not commit a host of other sins!) Yet at the same time, we would hope to overcome some habitual weaknesses as we pursue the good and grow in holiness. That change would be a fruit of “firm purpose of amendment,” and part of the sacrament. So in this final week, I would ask you to reflect on the area of your life you really would like to change, to see differently, and invite God into that space of your life. Invite His healing touch. Welcome His consoling words. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. That process begins with us in the here and now as we seek to follow Him more and more faithfully, day by day.

With prayers for the road ahead,
Fr. Wilson