April 6.  Sunday Lent 5C. Adultery. “Let him who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone.”   Fr Michael decided to tell the congregation a story linked with the gospel of the day. John 8:1-11.  He called it, “A Mother’s prayer. “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child…  Yes Jesus, look upon him with mercy and love and especially with gentleness and compassion, but may be not with meekness and mildness.  We have to be strong, so very strong.   It’s not his fault that he was born HIV positive. Is it mine, or his father’s? Should we not have allowed him to born?  We should not have contracted the disease in the first place.  I find the anger in me sometimes wants to boil over, to burn and destroy and then fall back exhausted.  Slowly acceptance is growing.  Mike was such a good husband at first and then seemed to get bored and started going with those women. When I found out I was shattered at first but then just wanted to retaliate and do the same.  Then it all went horribly wrong and maybe we both got what we deserved. In those days there was no anti-retroviral treatment and Mike became very ill and succumbed to the disease.  I and the boy are fortunate to be on treatment, but Lord, the guilt for me is so overpowering and yet I find it hard to understand that a God who is so good and merciful can allow the innocent to suffer too?     One day I believe I will explain the situation to him.  When he asks, ‘What is adultery’ maybe I will tell him, ‘It is what adults do to children without thinking.”  

Reflect, share and act. Scripture: “Let him who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her” “Has no one condemned you?” “Neither will I.” John 8:1-11.  Pope Francis:  JUBILEE.  A reality having to do with eternal life is God’s judgement, both at the end of our individual lives and at the end of history. Sin has consequences, not only outwardly in the effects of the wrong we do, but also inwardly, inasmuch as “every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death, in the state called Purgatory”. In our humanity, weak and attracted by evil, certain residual effects of sin remain. These are removed by the indulgence, always by the grace of Christ, who, as Saint Paul VI wrote, “is himself our ‘indulgence’”. SNC 23. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy”. Choose an act of love and sacrifice from the list, also published at www.marfam.org.za