Homily
5th Sunday of Lent C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
7 April 2019
AMDG +JMJ +m
How many of you came here today to be humiliated? Probably no one.
But it's how we started Lent, some 40 days ago. By having 'humus' - dirt - thrown on our foreheads, followed by the dual insult of being called a sinner who is going to die. Fun stuff. Yet you showed up in droves on Ash Wednesday to be humiliated. Why?
It's because I don't want to be stuck. None of us do. We are made to change, and to grow, not to get stuck. Not to settle or quit. We are made to live, not to die. As we learn again today, humiliation is the path. It's not fun, but it works.
Can you remember the time when your greatest sin was exposed? The time when the weakness you wanted to keep hidden was revealed? The time when your deepest secret became known? I bet you thought you were going to die.
But you didn't die. You changed. You grew from that experience. It was a pivotal moment in your story.
Last week the prodigal son was at rock bottom. Humiliated. Proven to be a fool and no longer worthy to be called a son. Where did he end up? In the embrace of his Father.
This week is 100x worth. A woman is caught in the very act of the most despised crime - adultery. A sin that causes so much damage to love and family and communion that the law commanded that it be eradicated through stoning. Presumably she was drug out naked before everyone in the temple. She is the worst of the worst. Humiliated beyond imaging.
Where does she end up? Face to face with mercy incarnate. One one one with Jesus.
When we're humiliated we feel like we're going to die. But it's at that place where Jesus does something new, and we get 'unstuck', and begin to truly live.
Why don't we follow the spiritual principle of counting ourselves as the greatest sinner? What but good can come from this? Now I'm not asking you to become scrupulous or enter into self-hatred. That's pride masked as false humility, and it will backfire. I'm just asking you to be a disciple of Jesus, who counted himself as the greatest sinner.
When the adulterous woman is brought before Him, he refused to look down on her. He bends close to the 'humus' - the earth, and looks down. He humiliates himself, and writes on the ground, perhaps in desperate search of a humble heart on which he can write His law of mercy.
How can we receive this Gospel and look down on anyone ever, and call ourselves a disciple of Jesus. I don't think there's a way we can.
When we count ourselves as the greatest sinner, we get a one-on-one with Jesus, who as Savior and the one who came to forgive sins, always leaves the 99 and searches for the most contrite heart. Is he searching for your heart. There is nothing more pleasing to Jesus than a humble and contrite heart, on which he can write His law of mercy.
So I hope you came here today to be humiliated. I hope I did to. I don't actually wish that we all get caught cheating, and fornicating and masturbating, but it's better than being stuck. Humiliation is better than allowing our sins and secrets to kill us. Humiliation hurts, but it is where new life begins.
At the very least you're invited to confession, into the circumstance of the adulterous woman. Exposed as the greatest sinner, she ends up one on one with mercy incarnate, who only looks up at her, and tells her that He does not condemn her.
Do you still doubt that humiliation leads to new life? Is there anything that changes us more than confession?
I dare say that we are stuck when we hide and look down on each other. The scribes and the Pharisees bailed when they had a chance to be honest and show mercy. How about you?
Where are we free? It's where we are most honest and vulnerable. It's where we are most humble - in our humiliation. It's where we started Lent. More importantly, it's where we need to end up.
5th Sunday of Lent C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
7 April 2019
AMDG +JMJ +m
How many of you came here today to be humiliated? Probably no one.
But it's how we started Lent, some 40 days ago. By having 'humus' - dirt - thrown on our foreheads, followed by the dual insult of being called a sinner who is going to die. Fun stuff. Yet you showed up in droves on Ash Wednesday to be humiliated. Why?
It's because I don't want to be stuck. None of us do. We are made to change, and to grow, not to get stuck. Not to settle or quit. We are made to live, not to die. As we learn again today, humiliation is the path. It's not fun, but it works.
Can you remember the time when your greatest sin was exposed? The time when the weakness you wanted to keep hidden was revealed? The time when your deepest secret became known? I bet you thought you were going to die.
But you didn't die. You changed. You grew from that experience. It was a pivotal moment in your story.
Last week the prodigal son was at rock bottom. Humiliated. Proven to be a fool and no longer worthy to be called a son. Where did he end up? In the embrace of his Father.
This week is 100x worth. A woman is caught in the very act of the most despised crime - adultery. A sin that causes so much damage to love and family and communion that the law commanded that it be eradicated through stoning. Presumably she was drug out naked before everyone in the temple. She is the worst of the worst. Humiliated beyond imaging.
Where does she end up? Face to face with mercy incarnate. One one one with Jesus.
When we're humiliated we feel like we're going to die. But it's at that place where Jesus does something new, and we get 'unstuck', and begin to truly live.
Why don't we follow the spiritual principle of counting ourselves as the greatest sinner? What but good can come from this? Now I'm not asking you to become scrupulous or enter into self-hatred. That's pride masked as false humility, and it will backfire. I'm just asking you to be a disciple of Jesus, who counted himself as the greatest sinner.
When the adulterous woman is brought before Him, he refused to look down on her. He bends close to the 'humus' - the earth, and looks down. He humiliates himself, and writes on the ground, perhaps in desperate search of a humble heart on which he can write His law of mercy.
How can we receive this Gospel and look down on anyone ever, and call ourselves a disciple of Jesus. I don't think there's a way we can.
When we count ourselves as the greatest sinner, we get a one-on-one with Jesus, who as Savior and the one who came to forgive sins, always leaves the 99 and searches for the most contrite heart. Is he searching for your heart. There is nothing more pleasing to Jesus than a humble and contrite heart, on which he can write His law of mercy.
So I hope you came here today to be humiliated. I hope I did to. I don't actually wish that we all get caught cheating, and fornicating and masturbating, but it's better than being stuck. Humiliation is better than allowing our sins and secrets to kill us. Humiliation hurts, but it is where new life begins.
At the very least you're invited to confession, into the circumstance of the adulterous woman. Exposed as the greatest sinner, she ends up one on one with mercy incarnate, who only looks up at her, and tells her that He does not condemn her.
Do you still doubt that humiliation leads to new life? Is there anything that changes us more than confession?
I dare say that we are stuck when we hide and look down on each other. The scribes and the Pharisees bailed when they had a chance to be honest and show mercy. How about you?
Where are we free? It's where we are most honest and vulnerable. It's where we are most humble - in our humiliation. It's where we started Lent. More importantly, it's where we need to end up.
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