I've been trying to think of something really interesting or deep to write tonight, but I'm really nervous about a lunch get-together I have tomorrow, so here's a picture of a kitten that looks like it could be looking at Jesus in the Eucharist:



I'm praying for you!

:)

Today is the feast day of my patron saint, St. Catherine of Siena:

When I was little, my mom told me that one time, St. Catherine experienced the Beatific Vision and that when she awoke and discovered that she was still on Earth, she cried for days on end.

And that's how, as a small child, I started actively praying to never experience heaven until I got there for good.

I'm praying for you!

:)

St. John Paul II instituted Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000.

He died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

He was canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2014!

I'm praying for you!

:)

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII, pray for us!

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." - St Augustine

I'm praying for you!

:)

"My conscience is the tribunal of Pilate… as often as I choose to speak the uncharitable word, do the dishonest action, or consent to the evil thought, I say in so many words, “Release Barabbas unto me.” And to choose Barabbas means to crucify Christ." Ven. Fulton Sheen

I'm praying for you!

:)

"The demons are sleepless and immaterial, death is at hand, and I am weak. Lord, help me; do not let Thy creature perish, for Thou carest for me in my misery." - St Peter of Damascus

I'm praying for you!

:)

"If you please man and never please God you have nothing; If you please God and man forsakes you, you have everything. " -Dorothy Patterson

I'm praying for you!

:)

Easter is really difficult to explain to children. I spent all day today at my brother's house, so I got to talk to my 3-year-old niece (RM) about Easter.

Me: RM, what do we celebrate on Easter?
RM: JESUS!!
Me: Yup, we celebrate Jesus every day. What happened on Easter, though? What did Jesus do?
RM: I don't know.
Me: He rose from the dead.

She accepted this without question. When I mentioned that He died and then rose again, she pointed to the crucifix on the wall and said, "There's Jesus, dying." But when she asked why there are palms in the house and I told her the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem, she refused to believe that. "No!" was all I got.

Of course, the reason for her acceptance of the miracle of Easter was simple. She doesn't understand death.

My brother: RM, what do we celebrate on Easter?
RM: Jesus!
My brother: Yes, but what did Jesus do on Easter?
RM: He rose from the dead!
My sister-in-law: Do you know what dead means?
RM: Yeah, it's when you step on things. (Meaning bugs).

To be able to explain the miracle and joy of Easter to someone, you have to be able to explain death to them.

To be able to appreciate Jesus's resurrection, we first have to understand His death. We have to understand our own death, our own sin, and the need for redemption. Without sin, without death, without redemption, there is no Easter.

Just as we have died with Christ in baptism, so also we will rise with Him to everlasting life. But how will we ever rise if we do not know we have died?

I'm praying for you!

Happy Easter!

Christ is risen, Alleluia :)

Holy Saturday

On the seventh day, He rested.

Fr. Baker pointed out last week that this line in Genesis foreshadows Jesus' rest in the tomb during Holy Saturday. I had never realized that, and it blew my mind.

Also, you should watch this video by Tenth Avenue North about the Last Supper:

I'm praying for you!

:)

Good Friday

I watched The Passion of the Christ for the first time last night, and even though I still don't completely understand the parts with the devil just standing there or the necessity of the last shot being of Jesus' legs, one thing that really struck me was Mary's reaction to Jesus' passion.

She tries to stop the whole thing at first. 

For some reason, I've always imagined Mary just standing there helplessly, watching Jesus be tortured and killed. Mary is so often portrayed as gentle, and it's hard for me to reconcile in my mind gentleness and boldness. But it makes sense that she would be bold. It could have gotten her arrested for speaking out in the way she does in the movie, but she doesn't care. All she cares about is her Son.

When she realizes Jesus does not protest, she trusts Him.

When Jesus is first arrested in the movie, Mary yells to have him freed, that He is innocent. When she notices that He does not fight back, however, that He submits willingly to the torture, she allows Him. This is in direct contrast with Peter, who told Jesus that what He was doing was folly, that he would not permit Him to die. In the movie, even, Peter asks if they should run during the agony in the Garden, if they should flee. Mary, however, trusts God, and she trusts her Son. In the movie, she turns away during the scourging and asks quietly, "My son, when will you choose to deliver yourself?" I'm not sure how accurate it is to think that Mary did not know that Jesus was to die, but there is a sense in that scene that even if she does not know, she trusts. She trusts that Jesus could deliver Himself from this if He wished and that since He has not done so, then He has a reason. She grieves His Passion but she does not try to prevent it.

She still sees Jesus as her little child. 

When Jesus falls near Mary, we get a flashback to Him falling as a child. Just as any mother forever sees her children as her children, Mary runs to Jesus not simply because He is God but because He is her child and she longs to comfort Him. She kisses Him and whispers, "I'm here." Also, Jesus still sees His mother as such. He remembers being a small child. He is human, and her words and presence actually provide Him with comfort. Even when He cries out from the cross "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" she is there. When His Father seems to have abandoned Him, His mother is still there.

She kisses His feet on the cross.

I often think of Mary as kneeling far away from the cross rather than right in front of it, touching the cross, kissing the feet of Jesus as He suffers and dies.

By the end of it all, Mary is covered in Jesus' blood. 

When Christ suffers, His mother suffers. We have wounded her when we have wounded Him.

I'm praying for you!

:)

The Triduum has officially begun! And I had an A Capella concert, so I didn't make it to Holy Thursday Mass. I will briefly reflect on the Gospel reading here, though.

Today's Gospel is John 13:1-17, 31b-35: 

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Of course, we immediately get the reference to the Passover, which is mentioned in the first reading for today. Christ is the lamb who is slain, His blood spread across the doorpost so that death will pass over and not touch the inhabitants of the house. We drink His blood and mark our hearts with Him whom we have killed, and we are protected, because He was innocent, an unblemished Lamb, who died willingly for us.

Jesus knows it is time for His sacrifice. This sentence seems to serve largely to tell us that He goes willingly and knowingly to His death. Nothing about Christ's passion is a surprise to Him. He knows and accepts it all for our sakes. 

Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Once again, Christ's love is infinite and endless. He goes willingly to His death for us, and not just with the idea of saving "humanity," but with love for each and every individual. This especially calls to mind His love for His disciples, which shows us His divinity because He loves them perfectly and to the very end, and also shows us His humanity, because He had friends. He loved His friends. This also shows us a clear model of humanity as it is meant to be - in the image of God, loving. He is not less human because He loves; He is more perfectly human.

The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

Christ humbles Himself even in His last moments with His apostles. He does not say, "Guys, tonight I'll be arrested and tomorrow I'm going to die. I'm sacrificing myself for the whole world, so can we please just chill tonight? Can someone get me some more wine?" He shares a meal with His friends, for sure. But during the meal, He presents them with His own Body and Blood. After the meal, He gets up and washes their feet, humbling Himself and setting an example of perfect humility and love. Before I so much as have minor surgery, I insist on at least a full day of goofing off beforehand with no responsibilities. I expect to be excused of everything, to be waited on and pampered. The night He is betrayed, the day before His death, knowing exactly what lies before Him, Jesus teaches and loves His friends.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."

Then we get to Peter, who I often think might have been made the first pope because he's so easy to relate to. "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" No, Peter, He's going around the room washing everyone's feet, but not yours. You're special. I bet your feet smell like roses naturally, and they never need washing. There's also a sense here that Peter thinks he is the unworthiest person in the room. Sure, Lord, you stooped to wash everyone else's feet, and that was crazy enough, but you wouldn't serve me, would you? I am the lowest of the low. We should be serving you, not the other way around. 

Jesus just calmly tells Peter that this will all make sense later. Sometimes, it feels like we hear that from Jesus a lot. What's your will in my life? Why do you let evil exist? How can God be three Persons and one God? A lot of things are beyond our understanding, and even though we can try our best to understand, the end answer is often, "Later you will understand." We have to go on faith and trust that Christ knows what he's doing. 

Of course, like Peter, we often refuse to accept that Jesus knows what He's doing. You're not going to wash my feet! I am beneath you; this task is beneath you. Peter almost seems afraid that Jesus is forgetting who He is. Are you crazy? You can't wash my feet. You're God, remember?

But Jesus wants us to trust Him and to allow Him to love us. As Fr. Baker says so often, you have to accept a gift before you say thank you. You have to be loved before you can love. .We must become like little children and accept God's love in order to grow closer to Him. So Christ says Peter must let Him wash his feet. He has to accept Christ's sacrifice, His humility, His love. 

And of course, Peter thinks Jesus is saying that you can't go to heaven unless He physically washes your feet rather than that you have to trust Him and allow Him to love you, and so he asks Jesus to wash all of him. I mean, if the requirement for heaven is washing by Christ, why would He wash just your feet?

Jesus sets him straight, though, pointing out that it's not the physical washing that's important here. They don't need Him to wash all of them, and in fact, most of them are pretty clean spiritually as well. Except Judas, of course.

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Teaching moment! Jesus actually speaks very plainly to His apostles a lot of the time, and I imagine He did in moments we don't see, too (like when it says He explained the parables to them in private). He doesn't just wash their feet, say they're mostly clean, and then go back to the meal. He explains that He's setting an example of serving others and of humbling yourself. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. We have a greater responsibility to humble ourselves and serve others because we know Christ and we have been commissioned to spread His kingdom. We cannot feign ignorance of the call to love one another. He laid it out for us in extremely clear terms. We are not greater than Christ. He humbled Himself, so we should humble ourselves just as much. Peter wanted to deny Jesus the opportunity to lower Himself to a servant, to wash the feet of His apostles, because in serving the apostles, He seems to lower Himself below them. However, as His Body and His followers, we are lower than God no matter how much He humbles Himself. He humbles Himself further than we could ever imagine humbling ourselves, and if we were to truly live as His disciples, we would lower ourselves further than Him. If Jesus is humble, no one may be proud. If Jesus is a servant, no one may be a master.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him .If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
Ok, I'm not really sure where Jesus went in the beginning of this part, but He went out somewhere. In all seriousness, though, Jesus here starts talking about the glory of God and how He and the Father glorify each other, God being complete and perfect in His nature as the Trinity. Jesus's sacrifice glorifies the Father through His obedience to the will of the Father, and God the Father glorifies Jesus in return. He glorifies Him immediately.

Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

Jesus addresses His apostles as "little children" and tells them He's leaving and they can't come with Him. We will look for Him. From now on, everyone will be like Zaccheus, climbing trees just to try to catch a glimpse of Christ. Where He is going, we cannot come. Yes, in a sense, this could refer to the fact of heaven's gates being closed before Christ's passion and death, thus meaning that we can't come now but we will be able to come. Also, however, this appears to be a statement about the necessity of Christ as the sacrificial Lamb. Despite Peter's statements that he would gladly die with Christ or instead of Him, Christ must be the one to die. Only His death can atone for sins and grant us salvation. He is going to save the world, to fulfill the scriptures, to complete the task for which His Father sent Him, and we can't come. Finally, He is going to die, and no one can accompany Him into death. No matter how tightly you may be holding on to someone, everyone leaves this world alone.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The Gospel ends with a restatement of the message given to the apostles after the washing of the feet. It is not simply humility or servitude in general that we are called to as Christians. We are called to perfect love. We are called to love everyone just as Christ loved us. A lot of people mock the idea of loving everyone as if love is a childish ideal. Love died for us on the cross, though, and this is no mere command to be nice to everyone. This is a command to lay down our lives, to live each and every moment in self-sacrifice, to live each moment for others, to give up everything we have and everything we are to help everyone we meet and even those we don't achieve eternal joy with Christ. They will know we are Christians by our love - not by our ability to be sweet to everyone or always say something nice, but by our constant, unflinching martyrdom for the sake of Christ and His Church. 

I'm praying for you!

:)

Even though I hardly ever make it to the Chrism Mass, and I didn't make it there tomorrow, I've been thinking about the significance of it. In Holy Week, right before the Lord's passion, we celebrate the institution of the priesthood, of Holy Orders, of the apostolic Church. We bless oil, and we celebrate centuries upon centuries of tradition and ritual. Before we enter the Triduum, we are reminded that the Church is timeless, that when Christ leaves His earthly life, He does not leave us. He will remain on Earth for all time. He entered the world and shall not leave until His work is accomplished. He does this through His Church, through the ordained priests and bishops who consecrate the Eucharist and bring Him to the entire Church. Tomorrow, we will enter into the most intense period of the liturgical calendar. Christ, God become man, suffers and dies for us, and the world waits with baited breath to see Him rise. Before He suffers and dies, however, He gives us the Church. He gives us His carefully chosen, beloved apostles. He gives us a promise to be with us always. It is also good right now to remember that these events - the passion, the crucifixion, the resurrection - already happened. Christ died once for everyone, and He lives no more to die. As Fr. Baker said, Easter Mass during the day is pretty normal because resurrection is the normal state for a Christian. Of all the events we commemorate during Holy Week, most of them are already accomplished. Although we may stand at the foot of the cross during Mass, in our present time, Christ has died and risen and that will never happen again. The Church, however, as Christ's body, shares in His eternal nature. Just as Christ lives now, the Church also lives in the present. When we celebrate the Chrism Mass, we celebrate the institution of Holy Orders, but we also bless oil to use in the present, because the succession of Peter remains unbroken. We celebrate continuing Tradition, the eternal march of the saints, the eternal call to holiness and union with God. Together, the Chrism Mass and the Last Supper show us what we are to love in this world - God and each other. It shows us who we are supposed to be - the bold saint who marches always towards God and the humble, contrite saint who lovingly accept Christ's sacrifice on our behalf and sacrifice ourselves for others. More on the Eucharist and the Last Supper tomorrow.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Jesus could have called His executioners by name. The men who physically nailed Christ to the Cross were loved infinitely by Him even in that moment, especially in that moment. Imagine gazing with love on someone that is hammering nails through your flesh, someone who is whipping you, someone who is ridiculing you, someone who is laughing while stripping you naked and deciding who gets to keep your clothes when you're dead, someone who kills you and seems to enjoy doing it while crowds watch and no one intervenes. It's even more miraculous, though. Imagine doing all this to someone, and having them love you in return. Imagine whipping someone, stabbing them with a lance, forcing a crown of thorns onto their head, mocking them, forcing them to carry the instrument of their own death, stripping them naked, nailing them to a cross, laughing as they suffer the most agonizing death possible. And imagine that the whole time, they love you. We have done all this. Whenever we sin, we contribute to Christ's passion, and He loves us infinitely, perfectly, from all time and into all eternity. Even as we sin, He loves us. All He asks is that we love Him in return and love others as He has loved us. Since He has given us His love so freely, what possible excuse could we have to deny it to Him or to anyone we encounter?

"We love because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

I'm praying for you!

:)

"My conscience is the tribunal of Pilate… as often as I choose to speak the uncharitable word, do the dishonest action, or consent to the evil thought, I say in so many words, “Release Barabbas unto me.” And to choose Barabbas means to crucify Christ." - Ven. Fulton Sheen

I'm praying for you!

:)

"While all the sacraments confer grace, the Eucharist contains the author of grace, Jesus Christ Himself." - Fr. John Hardon, S.J.'

I know it's Palm Sunday, but I have to be up for Adoration in 4 hours. The rest of my Holy Week posts will be appropriately themed.

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His Love and the future to His Providence." - St. Augustine

I'm praying for you!

:)

"O my Jesus, teach me to open the bosom of mercy and to love everyone who asks for it. Jesus, my Commander, teach me so all my prayers and deeds may bear the seal of Your mercy." - St. Faustina, Diary 755

I'm praying for you!

:)

"How good it is for us when the Lord unsettles our lukewarm and superficial lives." - Pope Francis

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Nothing is so precious as time; and yet how comes it that nothing is so little valued? Men will spend hours in jesting, or standing at the window or in the middle of a road, to see what passes; and if you ask them what they are doing, they will tell you they are passing away time.

O Time, now so much despised! Thou wilt be of all things else the most valued by such persons when death shall have surprised them. What will they not then be willing to give for one hour of so much lost time! But time will remain no longer for them when it is said to each one of them: ‘Go forth Christian soul out of this world, hasten to be gone, for now there is no time for thee.’ How will they then exclaim, lamenting, ‘Alas! I have squandered away my whole life; during so many years I might have become a saint; but how far am I from being such; and shall I become such, now that there is no more time for me?’ But to what purpose will such lamentation be, when the dying man is on the verge of that moment on which will depend eternity?" St. Alphonsus De Liguori

I'm praying for you!

:)

"The human heart is constantly seeking good things that will make it happy; but if it seeks them from creatures, it will never be satisfied, no matter how many it acquires. If it seeks God alone, God will satisfy all its desires." St. Alphonsus Liguor

I'm praying for you!

:)

"Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive." - C.S. Lewis

I'm praying for you!

:)

"The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly." - St Paul of the Cross

I'm praying for you!

:)

"From the very beginning I fell in love with the Blessed Sacrament and by the mercy of God have never fallen out." - J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm praying for you!

:)

When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from him; but in heaven’s name, to what?

— G.K. Chesterton

I'm praying for you!

:)

Finally the end of the Gospel from 2 Sundays Ago

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

The Samaritans come to believe in Christ because He spoke truthfully about sins. Not because He seemed like a nice guy, or because He healed her, or even because He said He was the Messiah. They come to believe in Him because He shines light into the darkness, opening their eyes to their own sins.

So all of them go out to meet Jesus and He stayed with them for two days. This is probably even less socially acceptable than eating with tax collectors. But though salvation is through the Jews, it is not only for the Jews.

He speaks to them, and they come to believe in Him. We do not know what He said during those two days, but it doesn't seem that far of a stretch to think He shone light into the darkness of all their souls. He offers each of us living water if only we would relinquish the darkness to Him, for He is the only One who can conquer it.

"We no longer believe because of your word, for we have heard for ourselves..." When we first learn about Christ, we learn about Him. Our parents, teachers, priests, and friends tell us stories about His miracles, His sacrifice, His resurrection. We memorize facts. We memorize a Creed. We memorize rules and prayers. I could argue persuasively about many elements of the Catholic faith before I ever had a personal encounter with Christ. But if we follow Him and seek Him, we will encounter Him for ourselves. We come to know Him. This goes deeper than merely hearing words we have heard from others coming directly from God instead. Our faith is deepened when we come to know and to love Jesus as our Savior, Lord, Bridegroom, and friend. My parents told me about God all through my childhood. I studied Jesus in school and at home. I went to Mass each week and I believed that Jesus was God. But now, I know Him personally. I no longer believe because of the testimony of others, for I have heard for myself, and I know that He is truly the savior of the world.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

We're so busy waiting, we don't see what's right in front of us. "The Messiah will come," but the Messiah is already here. The sower and the reaper rejoice together, although they have worked separately. The sower does not begrudge the reaper the harvest, but allows the reaper to gather in the harvest. 

Christ sends His disciples to reap what they have not worked for. They benefit from others' works, much as we benefit from the Mystical Body of Christ all lifting each other up (kinda like a lever). We cannot do everything alone. Really, we can't do anything alone. But some sow, and some reap, and we all rejoice together.

Sorry this "reflection" is so short. I'm really striking out on insights into this passage, so any thoughts you have on it would be much appreciated.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.

 The disciples come back with food and are confused by Jesus talking with a woman, but they don't press the issue. Instead, they say the least controversial thing they can think of at the moment. "Rabbi, eat."

But Jesus does not want to have what we would consider normal conversations today. He says He has other food they don't know about.

And the disciples have no idea that Jesus is not having a normal conversation with them, so of course, they ask each other where He got food. Did somebody else bring Him food? That would be weird, given that they had just gone to get Him food. Why would He have gotten food from a stranger when His disciples had gone to get Him food? Who would have chanced upon Him sitting at the well at noon? The Samaritan woman doesn't have any food on her, and it would be even stranger for a Jewish man to accept food from a Samaritan woman than to talk to her.

His food, He says, is to do the will of God the Father and finish His work. Speaking with the Samaritan woman, proclaiming the good news, has been His food. He started His conversation with her by saying, "Give me something to drink," and perhaps this statement that He has food already is an acknowledgment that she fulfilled His request. She spoke truthfully about herself to Him, and she confessed belief in the Messiah. She asked for life-giving water, and in so doing, she gave Him to drink of her own emerging faith in Him.

Yet, even without her actions, He is still satisfied. His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him. So often, we think about the fruit of our labors, the end results. If I am nice to someone, they will be nice to me. If I plant a seed, a tree will sprout. But Jesus' food is the labor itself. If we trust God, we need not worry about the end result. He will take care of that. We don't need to fix another person's brokenness. Only He can do that. All we can do is love others as He has loved us. We should be less focused on how everyone around us will react to our actions and more focused on how pleasing our actions themselves are to God. Jesus' food was not in the Samaritan woman's request for water nor in her running through the streets asking if He might be the Christ. Rather, His food was in doing the will of His Father. His food was in speaking to her, speaking the truth with love and compassion.

We should delight in doing the will of the Lord. As Fr. Baker always says, "Whenever you are about to do something, think, 'Would this be pleasing to God?'"

I'm praying for you!

:)

At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.

So, the apostles get back, and Jesus is talking to the woman, and they're really surprised. He is breaking social norms here after all. Although, it amazes me sometimes how amazed everyone is when Jesus does things that break social norms, considering how often He breaks them. Healing on the Sabbath, eating with tax collectors, stopping people from stoning a woman, telling parables such as the Good Samaritan. He does all these things, and His disciples are still "amazed" that He would talk to a woman. Why? Why do they not see the man before their very eyes? Often, we think, "It's so hard for me to know or recognize Christ, but if I could see Him, touch Him, hear Him, then I would know Him." His disciples saw Jesus. They touched Jesus. They heard Jesus. But they are still constantly amazed by Him. They think they know Him, but they still are blind to who He truly is. God's ways are far above our ways, and they are unfathomable. Even when God is present before us, as a human, as a friend, He still acts in ways that are mysterious to us.

They do not understand, but they also do not question Him. The disciples trust that Jesus has a reason to speak with the woman, although they do not know what it is, and they wonder, but they do not interfere.

The woman goes into town and tells everyone that Jesus has told her everything she has done. He has seen the truth about her and has told it to her. Remember her profession of faith - the Messiah will come and will tell us everything. Jesus tells her He is the Christ, and His words are backed up by the fact that He told her everything she had done. The second reading yesterday spoke about shining a light on things that are hidden in the darkness, exposing them to bring them into the light and cleanse them. He has brought her sins into the light, but she is not ashamed because of it. Rather, she rejoices that they have been exposed, that light has been brought into the darkness of her soul, that her soul may now live in the light. She does not proclaim Him as the Christ directly, but asks if He could be. She has been brought into the light and the truth, and now she speaks truthfully to everyone, not just Jesus. She is still unsure, although she suspects He is the Christ, and so she asks for everyone's confirmation. She also gives them the chance to investigate for themselves, to come to their own conclusions, to encounter Him personally as she has.

They went out of the town and came to Him. This woman is on the margins of society, an adulteress. If she went around town claiming to have met Christ, why would anyone listen to her? Because in the same breath with which she announced His presence, she confessed her sins. With joy. The light shining into her soul is now visible for everyone to see. Her sins have been exposed to the light and she is running through the town proclaiming it. He knows my sins. He told me everything I have done. If I saw this woman running through the streets, I'd run out to meet Jesus, too.

I'm praying for you!

:)