Misery and Mercy

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

Spirituality, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality:christianity

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2019

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's Gospel, we hear the story of the woman caught in adultery, a tale that has beguiled Christians and non-Christians for two millennia. The story displays our constant temptation to use knowledge of God’s law to hurt others, not to liberate them. We gossip, we scapegoat, we blame—and we convince ourselves that we’re just following the divine law in pointing out other people’s problems. But then enters Jesus, who affirms that the law's primary purpose is to make us humble, to draw us to higher attainment. Without denigrating the law in the least, Jesus reaches out in mercy in order to brings sinners back to life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an
0:05.4	apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and
0:11.4	new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with
0:16.6	Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring
0:21.8	the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite
0:27.9	you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the
0:32.5	warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.
0:39.3	Peace be with you. What an embarrassment of riches we have in our Lenten
0:45.5	readings. That's true season after season in Lenten. We just have wonderful
0:49.6	biblical readings. So last week we heard what I call the greatest story I ever
0:53.8	told the parable of the prodigal son. And this week we have the story of the
1:00.2	woman caught in adultery from the gospel of John. A tale that's beguiled
1:05.9	Christians and non-Christians now for two millennia. So let's take a careful
1:11.5	look at this wonderful story. Notice first please how it commences with the
1:18.8	journey of Jesus from the Mount of Olives into the temple. Now those who've
1:24.1	been to the Holy Land know that Mount of Olives is to the east of the temple.
1:28.1	And if you cross over you then go down and what they call the Kidron Valley and
1:32.7	then you go back up to the temple. Now you might be tempted to say well that's
1:38.6	just a little bit of historical detail that Jesus came from the Mount of
1:41.8	Olives down the valley and up to the temple. But you got to remember what a
1:46.9	first century Jewish audience would have taken in because they would have
1:50.9	remembered the prophecy of Ezekiel. Regarding the corruption and restoration of
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