Message of Abbot Paul - Monday - 18th March 2024

​Sundays are a great joy to me now as I celebrate Mass for the parishes of Leominster and Bromyard. I love driving around the Herefordshire countryside, especially early on Sunday mornings, that are so special. Then there’s the reinvigorating contact and effusive prayer with enthusiastic congregations, made up of people from many nations. Even in rural Herefordshire we are truly a Catholic or universal Church. To crown all God’s gifts there’s also the added blessing of spending precious time with treasured friends and relaxing in their presence. How good God is to those who love him, to quote the Psalmist.

 

​Our Gospel reading is taken from John, (Jn 8: 1-11), and recounts that moving story of the woman caught in adultery, which we also find in Luke, (Lk 7: 36-50). The event takes place on the Mount of Olives. “Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.” Jesus teaches seated and in the open air, the crowds gathered around him. While he is thus engaged, some scribes and Pharisees appear, but they are not alone. “The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’” Are they really interested in what Jesus has to say? The unfortunate woman has apparently been caught in the very act. What about the man she was with, you might ask, was he not guilty too? But the Law was loaded against women and still is in many countries, as we know all too sadly. They were not really interested in what Jesus might have to say, for, even without listening, they had already judged him as being wrong. Sad to say, there are Catholics in the Church today, who are not interesting in what Pope Francis has to say. They are always the first to say that he is wrong, a heretic even. God have mercy and forgive them. The Pope certainly does.

 

​What does Jesus do? We read, “But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again.” We don’t know what he was writing in the sand, we are not told, but his words have become proverbial, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” At least the scribes and Pharisees are honest men, who recognise their sins, for we read, “When they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there.” The eldest had the most sins and the most blame, that’s usually the case. In the end, no one is left but Jesus and the woman, just the two of them. “He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and sin no more.’” Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save and to forgive, but forgiveness always comes with sound advice, “Be sure not to sin again.”

 

​Lord, we are not without sin, and we readily confess our sins to you. Forgive us our sins, we pray. Above all, grant us the grace to sin no more and never to judge others. Amen.