A reflection on the Eve of Palm Sunday

As the start of Holy Week approaches, the prioress, Sr Nicola, gave a talk to the community. Drawing parallels between last Sunday’s Gospel passage and the one that will be read on Palm Sunday, the reflection highlights the impact of encountering Jesus and the power of Divine Mercy.

“Palm Sunday is nearly upon us, and we will hear Luke’s account of the arrest, trial, and execution of Our Lord Jesus. Last Sunday we heard John’s account of the informal arrest, trial and release of the woman caught in adultery.

Two scenes of judgement are put before us. One of an innocent man before human sin, the other of a guilty woman before divine mercy. What a different outcome resulted in each case. What a world of difference between human bigotry and divine freedom.

As in every gospel story, we can choose to identify with any of the characters, drawing from the scene innumerable lessons for our own growth in the spirit and glimpses of Divine Love speaking to each one of us individually.

I want to focus on just one aspect – the result of the face-to-face encounter with Jesus, that is, to truth. The stakes are high, someone’s life is on the line.

No one disputes that the woman [and of course the man she was with] was guilty of adultery. She doesn’t, at the stage of the story we are invited to observe, make excuses or try to swerve the course of events unfolding. There is nowhere for her to hide in any case, the self-righteous crowd having dragged her into a public arena.

Make no mistake, a public humiliation like this serves to bolster the sense of security of those participating in the spectacle. “I’m not like her, I am better than her” and so on, or more sympathetically, “Thank God that’s not me this time.” But it does nothing to help the accused or to build up the human community. It simply tightens the bonds of fear of failure and discovery within the group, driving us to put effort into trying to keep hidden our less than perfect true self.

Actually, the crowd were not interested in the woman, only in ‘testing’’ Jesus, that is, catching him out so as to challenge his authority as a teacher. The woman was disposable. Maybe that was the worst of their short-sightedness. The woman was not thought to be worth the effort of saving. It did not matter if she was alive or dead – she was something to be used and then discarded.

Then the miracle happens. In the presence of divine grace a chink opens up in the hearts of a few mature spectators in the crowd. They begin to recognise the woman as kin, one like themselves, someone who can give in to temptation and sin. Face to face with Jesus, their true self emerges and identifies with the one being judged – they know we are all alike before God. The woman is no longer a de-personalised object. Jesus sees her and treats her as a valuable human person, a child of God, no matter what failings lie in her past.

It really is an extraordinary story. In the presence of Jesus, every person was given the chance to accept Jesus’ gift of new life through recognising their shared humanity and their need for grace.

In comparison, Pilate as judge brings about a tragic result. Pilate clearly recognises that Jesus is a person worthy of respect and that he is innocent of the charges the mob have brought against him. Three times he says Jesus is innocent, and yet he finally gives in to fear. Originally able to see Jesus as an unjustly persecuted man, he changes to seeing him as a dangerous threat to his own security, authority and the status quo. Pilate strips Jesus of his humanity at the point of handing him over to be tortured, humiliated and executed.

It’s this choice of taking away the kinship of one man to another, of refusing to see the other as a valuable child of God, that is the real tragedy. To choose political safety over the integrity and dignity of a human person is sinful. It’s fear that’s the great deceiver here. One of the most powerful agents of local government of the most powerful empire of the day was frightened of Jesus’ sheer naked goodness and humanity.

These two biblical stories could easy be matched to affairs in our own world today. They show two possible outcomes to human failures.

The first, when the grace of Jesus’ presence is accepted and truth comes to light leads to the possibility of a better future for everyone. Not necessarily an easy future, but one built on truth that will bring forth life.

The second, when the close encounter with Jesus is rejected as being too disturbing leads to the death of an innocent man and deeper entrenchment of darkness in the already troubled community of humankind. Yes, our faith tells us that even from this darkness God can reach in and draw out new beginnings, but always we have to make the choice to let that truth in.

That is, the truth of where we stand before God and before one another. Pray that we always recognise the humanity of the other person and know that Jesus is there with us, gazing in love upon us all, inviting us to courageously decline fear as the driving force in our lives and letting him open the options before us.”