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Fifth Sunday of Lent

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Fr. Tom Wilson April 7, 2019

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just a couple of months after I was ordained I was invited by a group of people up in the area that I was serving who did some who did some wonderful Ministry Retreat Ministry inside the walls of prisons in the in the Twin Cities area and they asked me if I would be willing to to help them by coming in on Saturday nights a couple of times a year that they were doing all these Retreats for four people who are in car serrated at the at the prison that was relatively close to our parish and I I agreed to it to do it I was a little bit nervous I have to be honest I was a little bit nervous and I will never forget the first time that I that I walked into the I walked into that to the prison to hear confessions after having done a bunch of paperwork to have to get approved to to go in late late they took me they took me in there were several different check points and in walls and barriers and and very very big heavy steel doors that that would slam & Clank each time you went past one went past one of these checkpoints and each time I heard that I heard those door slam m&n Clank I got a little bit more unnerved I just got a little bit more unnerved and the whole thing just felt a little bit more scary and frankly a little bit more permanent I was very very I was very very nervous of what about out but about being in there and when I hear the term prison that's what I think about that's what I think about that that that feeling of of permanence that feeling of No Escape and I suspect people who designed them that's what they want the feeling to be that there's that there's no possible escape and I can only imagine what people are people who are are in there for for for reasons of committing crimes and such must must feel like is it truth is prisons are designed so that there can be no Escape that's the reason that's the reason they are and so as I was listening to to to the radio and heard a brief conversation on it a couple of exigo that image came to my mind when when one of the people was one of the priests son it was was mentioning that God in his goodness God in his goodness does not want any of us to be prisoners of our own path he does not want us to be prisoners of our own past and when I when I recognize my own since my own brief experience with prison that that that is a that that's something that just that just walked into into my mind because it's permanent it's scary it's dark it's awful it really is and I suspect I suspect the prisons that sometimes we might we might create ourselves might even be worse they may be they may even be worse than the than the physical real prisons that that people go to Fort for committing crimes and as weird as we enter into as we enter into deeper and deeper into Lantern and his and his fifth Sunday in n e r c we've got readings that remind us that remind us of that that that goodness of God that goodness of God that the tells us that tells us to not be captive to the past to not be capped to the past is God speaks through it through the the words of Isaiah he said he says very very clearly remember not the events of the past I am making something new I am making something new that's something new begins in the souls of each one of us it begins with the mercy that God intends for each of us to to receive it begins with us being humble enough to say Okay God there is a past are events that I may be tempted to remember I might be tempted to remember and I might allow them to hang over my head for a long time I have to be honest I see this constantly I see this constantly in and Ministry and I suspect most of us probably have some to someone in relationship with us if not ourselves that carries burdens for a long time we might know exactly what they are we may not know they are but we can just tell we can just tell with it with it with a burdens that they carry that there's something there is just something there that has that just hasn't been released and who knows why it might be the result of might be a result of a wound that might be a result of our own since who knows where it comes from but then as we're reminded that God does not want us to remember the things of the past week at this beautiful encounter between Jesus and the caught in adultery it's a it's a wonderful it is a wonderful reading and yes often times it does get misinterpreted it'll get misinterpreted that somehow Jesus really doesn't think that sins to the Flasher a sexual nature are all that import because he eventually eventually sends her away but we actually analyze and listen to the interaction between Jesus and the woman that is that simply is not the case people get fascinated by what G just might have written on the ground there's been speculation for 2,000 years about what he wrote on the ground but the truth is that what's what was recorded by John is plenty enough for us to actually get the message that Jesus wanted to send a Kik and it's very very clear it's very very clear as it in between the interaction between Jesus and the woman exactly what the Lord wants us to know and that first thing that fit in as we as we see how John record the encounter the first thing is that the woman offers no rationalization or self-justification for her sin she doesn't say wait Bots she doesn't say wait a minute not my fault she did she didn't say anything like that she was it was so there was really nothing there's no there's no self-justification a rationalization for what she did the second thing that Jesus reminds us of m a n in the interaction is that there's plenty of sin to go around everybody who was bringing the charge was guilty of sin as well they make it when it's it's made that clear there's plenty of sin to go around and then finally finally the interaction is clear that there is no condemnation there is no condemnation that comes from the Lord but that no condemnation does not come with it I really don't care what you did it doesn't it that is not it is not with Cheese's at it is far from it in fact it comes with this excerpt ation is exhortation that he gives to the to the to the woman caught in adultery that he gives to each and every one of us go and do not send anymore go and do not send anymore that is the XR Tatian that allows us to be released from the prisons of our own sin that allows us to experience in a NuWave the freedom that God desires each every one of us to have the woman the woman is is a is is a little bit of a vague character in this is the way this is a tool that Saint John uses a lot in his gospel because we don't know we do not know how she react we don't know we don't know how exactly sheet she reacted she could have gone and started the life again 10 minutes later we have no idea we would hope that she would have reacted in a spirit of great gratitude to Jesus getting getting her out of the immediate situation but we really don't even know that but the truth is the truth is that that the desire of Jesus in releasing her and preventing her from experiencing that the priest captain that in that recommendation in the requirement of of the law that would gave her Freedom gave her freedom to start a new that he could begin working in her soul and she had this opportunity new found freedom and the new found Freedom eventually is meant to to give glory to give glory to God the truth is at the prison that that exists within our own hearts and soul our epidemic they are epidemic and they have us they have a so often living in the past they have us so often living in darkness and living in fear I hear stories every single day a people or directly or people in in in people's lives that live in the burden and heaviness of of Darkness Darkness that can be lifted with humility and response to God and Trust in his Mercy but yes there is a past there's a pass that may have been created by a wound there's a pass that may have been created by sin but that passed can be forgiven and the prisons that we have created our cells with them we can be released from and regain freedom in order to give glory to God with our lives if you have had an opportunity to see the movie unplanned over the last week or so and it's still it's still out highly recommend that you have seen a perfect example of this in real life in real life it's the story of Abby Johnson she was at abortion clinic supervisor and in and director who is complicit in 32000 abortions over 8 years and finally as fast as she's continued to be encouraged by her by her family to take to get out of that she begins to realize what she did when she finally has the courage to respond and to repent she begins to weep she begins to weep and say I have been part of 22000 abortion how could God ever forgive me how could God ever forgive me and the first words that are fam share with her are if you have repented and you go to God he can and will forgive you that prison that she had created with her own life and her own decisions to go against the law in the will of God she was a medium read from Spider-Man verse by her own repentance in the mercy that God desires to have and her life ends up then becoming an instrument of giving glory to God glory to God by sharing the story chic glory to God by her direct action in organization helping 500 more people who have done the exact same thing get out of the abortion industry over the last five years it is an amazing thing it is amazing thing what God can do with a repentant Soul a humble heart that trusts in his ability to forgive and just know I'm not living in this Darkness anymore and I believe and I trust that you will forgive me I believe I trust that you can restore my freedom and I'm not going to live in this Darkness any longer but we have to ask we have to believe we have to trust that it's very are we really absolutely unequivocally mast in a world we're all in which in which shot good is becoming evil and evil is becoming good the likelihood of that Darkness hanging over the heads of of people are not getting and not getting out of it or not trusting they can get out of it is more and more or worse yeah that's where she at the self rationalization that we can easily fall into is very very high but the woman caught in adultery didn't do it Abby Johnson didn't do it all they were worried tencent and receive the gift of God's mercy and forgiveness and it renewed Freedom it renewed Freedom it helped them to escape their prisons prisons are dark prison are designed to make us feel like there is no possibility for escape or freedom and I think and I suspect that those prisons that we create ourselves in our own wounds in our own sins are proud only worse than any physical prison could ever be but the truth is that we have a God who loves us who does not want us to remember and live in the things in the events of the past but to be restore a new with his mercy and forgiveness and that desire to be released from those prisons so that we can give glory and praise to his name

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