God's Pardon and Mercy

See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19

"Woman ... has no one condemned you? ... neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again" (Jn 8:10-11). Jesus is newness of life for those who open their hearts and, after acknowledging their sins, receive his saving mercy. In today's Gospel text, the Lord offers this gift of his love to the adulteress, who is forgiven and restored to her full human and spiritual dignity. He also offers it to her accusers, but their spirit remains closed and impenetrable.

Here is an invitation to meditate on the paradoxical refusal of his merciful love. It is as though the trial against Jesus were already beginning, a trial that we will relive in a few days during the events of his Passion: it will result in his unjust sentence to death on the cross. On the one hand, the redeeming love of Christ, freely offered to everyone; on the other, the closure of those who, moved by envy, seek a motive to kill him. Accused even of opposing the Law, Jesus is "put to the test": if he absolves the woman caught in flagrant adultery, it will be said that he has transgressed the precepts of Moses; if he condemns her, it will be said that he is inconsistent with his message of mercy towards sinners.

But Jesus does not fall into the trap. By his silence he invites everyone to self-reflection. On the one hand, he invites the woman to acknowledge the wrong committed; on the other, he invites her accusers not to shrink from an examination of conscience: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her" (Jn 8:7).

The woman's situation is certainly serious. But the message flows precisely from this situation: in whatever condition we find ourselves, we can always open ourselves to conversion and receive forgiveness for our sins. "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again" (Jn 8:11). On Calvary, by the supreme sacrifice of his life, the Messiah will seal for every man and woman
the infinite gift of God's pardon and mercy.

~Pope John Paul II, Homily of 4/1/01

Dear Jesus, rich in kindness and mercy, thank you for giving me the desire and the grace to open myself to conversion and to receive Your forgiveness. Today and always, let me be glad and rejoice in Your wondrous love! Amen.

"Iced Tulip Sphere" by Ann L. Krumrein

No Measure In Mercy

Praise the Lord, my soul, for everything, and glorify His mercy, for His goodness is without end. Everything will pass, but His mercy is without limit or end. And although evil will attain its measure, in mercy there is no measure. ~from Divine Mercy In My Soul (#423) by St. Maria Faustina

Photography by Ann L. Krumrein

Human poverty and divine mercy

Havanna, Cuba

Photography by Ann L. Krumrein

Let us enable human poverty to encounter divine mercy. The Lord makes us his friends, he entrusts himself to us, he gives us his Body in the Eucharist, he entrusts his Church to us. And so we ought truly to be his friends, to be one in mind with him, to desire what he desires and to reject what he does not desire. Jesus himself said: "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). Let this, then, be our common commitment: together to do his holy will: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). Let us embrace his will, like St. Paul: "Preaching the Gospel [...] is a necessity laid upon me; woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Pope Benedict XVI, 3/21/09

São Paolo Church, Luanda, Angola