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

🗓️ 13 March 2016

⏱️ 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.
0:05.0	Word on Fire is an apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization,
0:09.0	using media both old and new to share the faith on every continent
0:14.0	and to facilitate an encounter with Christ and his church.
0:18.0	The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring the transformative power
0:22.7	of God's word where it is most needed. Today we invite you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he
0:29.4	preaches the gospel and shares the warmth and light of Christ with each of us. Peace be with you.
0:42.1	What an embarrassment of riches we have in our Lenton readings.
0:48.0	That's true season after season in Lent. We just have wonderful biblical readings. So last week we heard what I call the greatest story ever told, the parable of the prodigal son. And this week we have the story of the woman caught in
0:57.3	adultery from the gospel of John, a tale that's beguiled Christians and non-Christians now for
1:04.4	two millennia. So let's take a careful look at this wonderful story. Notice, first place, how it commences with the journey of Jesus from the Mount of Olives into the temple.
1:19.9	Now, those who've been to the Holy Land know that Mount of Olives is to the east of the temple.
1:24.3	And if you cross over, you then go down in what they call the Kidron Valley, and then you go back up to the temple. And if you cross over, you then go down in what they call the Kidron Valley,
1:29.0	and then you go back up to the temple. Now, you might be tempted to say, well, that's just a little
1:35.3	bit of historical detail that Jesus came from the Mount of Olives down the valley and up to the
1:39.8	temple. But you got to remember what a first century Jewish audience would have taken in
1:45.5	because they would have remembered the prophecy of Ezekiel regarding the corruption and restoration of the holy temple.
1:57.1	Remember Ezekiel says that because of its corruption, the temple became so unclean that the
2:04.0	Shekinah, that means the glory of Yahweh, left the temple and moved east up over the Mount
2:14.9	of Olives.
2:15.7	So think of this great image, devastating, devastating image of the glory of Yahweh,
2:22.1	which is the whole reason the temple was holy in the first place.
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