A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, April 3rd

Our Gospel this weekend is a very powerful one, the story of the woman caught in adultery.  The religious leaders knew that Jesus was “soft” on sinners: after all, He ate with them and even had the tax collector Matthew as one of His inner circle.  If Jesus refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery (where is the man?), they could accuse Him of breaking the law.
 
Jesus simply says, let the one without sin throw the first stone; then, He starts writing in the sand.  Was He writing out their sins?  Or was He doodling, giving them time to reflect?  Either way, they realized they could not condemn the woman and went away.
 
The point for us is this: we have a tendency to judge and condemn, but that is God’s work, not ours.  Our work is to take care of our own sins and failings, letting God do His work of taking care of other
people.  We have enough to handle with ourselves.  We will have much more peace in our lives when we learn this important lesson: let go and let God, especially when it comes to judging and
condemning others.
 
We are clearly told that we will be judged as we judge, that we will be condemned as we condemn.  Do we believe that?  Are we trying to root out this tendency?  Let us pray for each other, that we may grow in our ability to let go and let God do His work of judging.
 
Church sign of the week: Stack every bit of criticism between two layers of praise.