John 8: 1-11 (links validated 3/8/22)

So for us here and now, it would be foolish to ignore that Will Smith acted atrociously. That Chris Rock said something stupid and hurtful (that a lot of what passes for comedy today or jokes could fall into that category for that matter)… Nor should it be ignored that Will Smith and his wife openly boasting about their “open marriage” where they brag about their committing adultery – is atrocious too. Just playing arm-chair psychologist here, perhaps that was one contributing factor to what we witnessed last Sunday. But I digress. We’re not to call those guilty of public crimes and sins guiltless. And yes there are responsibilities as a society that we owe to one another that are affected by those things and need to be adjudicated. Crimes need to be condemned and punished. People need to know what is right and wrong, what is unacceptable – and to be protected from evil behaviors...

Shirley did her best to destroy Cynthia. At their high school, homecoming court was reserved for seniors. Shirley had her eye on this from the first time she was at the homecoming game her freshman year and saw the court. More than that, she was determined to be the queen. She was pretty well convinced that she would get there. And then junior year started and Cynthia showed up, transferred in from another school. Cynthia was beautiful and smart. She was popular. The boys, the other girls, and even the teachers talked about Cynthia like she was the greatest person ever. Shirley had to find a way to eliminate Cynthia from the competition. Shirley hatched her plot. She made up stories about Cynthia. She got some of the boys to tell lies about her. She hinted to the teacher who was the class moderator that Cynthia transferred to the school to escape her reputation. She got others to bully Cynthia on the internet. It all becomes too much for Cynthia. Instead of telling her parents or anyone, she tried to hurt herself. Thank God her mother found her and called 911. Cynthia went to the hospital and then to a psychiatric facility. Soon, word got out that someone was trying to destroy her. Shirley knew that she was that someone. She didn’t think it would all go that far. But it did. Now, if Cynthia never recovers or is scarred for life, it is Shirley’s fault. “I don’t know if God will forgive me,” Shirley says. “He will,” today’s Gospel tells us...

There is an adage that says: "What’s the one thing that two scholars can agree on? How poor the work of a third scholar is." At the local level and at the most global level we can see this same phenomenon. It was a large part of Hitler’s evil genius to exploit precisely this scapegoating mechanism. Germany of the late 1920's and 30's was a very divided and tension filled society...

If you had asked me three months ago who Lori Loughlin or Jussie Smollett were, I wouldn’t have had a clue. Even if you had showed me their pictures, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if they were athletes, politicians or musicians. In the last few weeks, I’ve learned they were both television stars from two popular shows – Full House (and the Netflix revivial Fuller House) and FOX TV’s Empire. I know this, not because I binge watched either of those shows – but rather because of criminal activity that the two actors have been accused of, and the non-stop feeding frenzy of news and fallout from both stories. Loughlin was charged as part of this nation-wide investigation into the scandal of people cheating or bribing elite colleges and universities to get their children admitted. Smollett back in January made a report that he had a hate crime perpetrated against him – and then a few months later the police claimed that was a hoax and charged him with filing a false police report among other charges...

Reilly Flaherty a 28 year old guy from Brooklyn had been out at a concert when his wallet was misplaced. About 2 weeks later he received a letter in the mail with the following so-called funny letter: Dear Reilly – I found your wallet and your drivers license had your address so here’s your credit cards and other important stuff. I kept the cash because I needed weed, the metrocard because well the fare’s $2.75 now, and the wallet cause it’s kinda cool. Enjoy the rest of your day. Toodles – Anonymous...

("A few weeks ago, Chris Stefanick, a Catholic evangelist, author and international speaker spoke on the subject of relativism. One line that he said in his talk that really stuck with me and came to mind with this Gospel reading was 'Truth without Love is cruel, its harsh, its unapproachable. But the flip side of it is that Love without Truth is misguided, enabling, and leads to, at best, sloppy sentimentality'...")

("As a father was putting his six-year-old to bed, he tapped the little boy's chest, 'Do you know what you have in there?' he asked. 'My guts?' responded the child. 'No,' said the dad, 'You have a piece of God in there. It's God's gift and it's inside all of us.' 'Do you have a piece of God in your heart?' asked the boy...")

I once heard Fred Craddock tell of an experience that he had several years ago when he was teaching in Oklahoma. He’d had a very busy spring, he was worn out and tired. When the semester was over he and his wife went back to his native Tennessee and in order for them to have a time to reconnect and recharge their batteries, they took a few days to go up in the Smokey Mountains to a little town called Gatlinburg, Tennessee...

("Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a teen-age girl became pregnant. The girl refused to name the father of the child. The people in the community, though they considered themselves to be broadminded, gossiped about her and speculated about whom the father might be...")

There is a little known sidelight to the story of the woman taken in adultery. After the Pharisees drag her before Jesus for sentencing and Jesus says, 'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,' a stone comes flying through from the crowd...

("This woman didn't leave Jesus feeling she 'got away with something' she left feeling blessed beyond words. I love the words of Ken Gire in his book INTIMATE MOMENTS: 'There are no tears as she leaves. Years later there will be...")

("This woman didn't leave Jesus feeling she 'got away with something' she left feeling blessed beyond words. I love the words of Ken Gire in his book INTIMATE MOMENTS: 'There are no tears as she leaves. Years later there will be...")

We are asked to admit the fact, as little St Francis of Assisi said, “Of all the sinners, I am the worst,” because he’s the only one who could look into his own soul and find out in the depths of his own soul the many ways he refused to love enough and care enough, the many ways he was ungrateful and unkind. And he himself would be the first to admit it. And they would say to him, “Francis, Francis, stop that, everybody knows you’re a holy man.” And Francis would say to them, “What I say is the truth. I cannot look into the hearts of others, but only my own, and I know that without the forgiveness and grace of God I would be lost as well.”...

This past week The New York Times reported that women sportscasters are routinely stalked and threatened. Where does the exploitation begin? Where does it end? Andy Warhol once predicted that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes,” but everyone enters modern mass media as an object to be manipulated, an image to be marketed, a story to be sold. Didn’t Erin Andrews realize that when she became an American sportscaster, a journalist and a “television personality”?

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 largely ended the terribly violent period of Irish history in the North known as “The Troubles.” For some, however, it introduced an ageless moral quandary. If evils are perpetrated to obtain a greater good, do they have any justification if the pursuit of that good is later abandoned? Consider Dolours Price. As a young woman, she participated in a peaceful protest march, whose members were brutally beaten while British officials turned a blind eye. That injustice was pivotal in her decision to join the Irish Republican Army. Dolours was arrested in the wake of the first I.R.A. bombing of London targets. She spent eight years in a British prison, enduring both a hunger strike and forced feeding, both of which nearly killed her and permanently affected her health. Moreover, during her time with the I.R.A., Dolours assisted in a number of killings—several of them were I.R.A. members adjudged to be traitors—and all of them were carried out in the name of a free and united Ireland...

("I remember once as a little boy living in Searcy, Arkansas, where my father taught at Harding College, and I was taken to the big city during the riots at Central High School that resulted from court-ordered desegregation. Etched in my mind is a scene that I will never forget..." and other illustrations)

("The Desert Fathers tell the story of a brother who had committed a fault. So they called a meeting and invited Abba Moses. He refused to go. The priest sent someone to say to him, 'They are all waiting for you.' So Moses got up and set off; he took a leaky jug and filled it with water and took it with him...")

("Three Florida teenagers have been arrested in the beating and murder of homeless men in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The beatings, which took place early in the morning on Thursday, January 12, resulted in the hospitalization of two men, and the death of a third. Video surveillance cameras on the campus of the Florida Atlantic University caught the first of the attacks against Jacques Pierre...")

("In the movie With Honors, Joe Pesci plays Simon Wilder a homeless man slowly dying from asbestos poisoning. Brendan Fraser portrays Montgomery 'Monty' Kessler, who is a student at Harvard who has reluctantly befriended Simon...")

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There’s a remarkable drawing by Sister Grace Remington which captures the drama of today’s Gospel vividly. The characters are different, but the message is the same. It’s called “Mary Consoles Eve,” and the artist is envisioning what would happen if the Blessed Virgin Mary met Eve. Eve is standing before Mary with her head bowed down. Her face is crimson with shame, and you can see that she wants to look up at Mary, but she doesn’t dare. In her hand, she’s holding an apple with a bite taken out of it, a symbol of her sin. There’s a snake wrapped around her leg. It’s the Devil, who, once we’ve sinned, tries to convince us that there’s no forgiveness and that things will never change...

The last chapter of lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s powerful and provocative book, Just Mercy, is entitled “The Stonecatcher’s Song of Sorrow.” It addresses the privilege and the risks involved with being a person who stands between those accused and those all too willing to cast stones. An older woman Stevenson encounters at a courthouse explains that after her own grandson was murdered, she found her calling “to be here to catch some of the stones people cast at each other.” It didn’t matter to her whether the people grieving were with the victims or perpetrators. Her role was to provide compassion and support to whoever needed it...