Whomever seeks to encounter the sense of life will continue to be completely lost and will losing himself each time the more he or she distances him/herself from others.

Do not doubt! Try to encounter a sense for living in life from someone, whomever you may want and you will see a new horizon and a new road in walking with others, therefore, as St. Dom Bosco affirmed “Life was not given for us!”

If you’ve lost the sense of life, encounter it now in the person that is at your side.

Are you going to do that?

with love and prayers.
Your brother,
Ricardo Sa

Translated from Portuguese

The popular interpretation is that Jesus expressed his mercy in the sight of those who chose to condemn and convinced them that their sinfulness was something to reflect upon before they condemn another. This actually is not a fully accurate interpretation. There is so much going on in this gospel that is overlooked.

Let us look at the elements. They bring before Jesus a woman caught in adultery. The law said that she should be stoned to death.

OK let us look at those elements.

The law on adultery was indeed quite strict but it deferred to the woman. If the incident happened in the country, the law did not call for death. It was this law to which Joseph referred when he considered putting Mary away. The reason for this was that there was always the possibility that a rape had happened and the woman’s calls for help would not have been heard in the country where people were not always nearby.

However, in the city, there was an understanding that one could cry for help and therefore the death was the penalty because it was assumed that this was indeed adultery.

Let us look at another element. The woman was caught in adultery. Adultery is committed when there is a minimum of two people and at least one is married. Outside of those conditions there is no adultery. So, we have to assume one of the two is married. However we can see one of the two is missing. The law stated that both should be put to death, not just the woman. The accusers state that they caught the woman in adultery and cite the law, but the law demanded that both are accused. Only one is accused. This is a major point that many leave out. Where is the man.

Now let us look at this situation even deeper. The accusers are citing the law which is based on the ten commandments. Those commandments clearly forbid adultery and there is no indication that the woman was indeed not caught in that act. However, the commandments also forbid bearing false witness which the accusers also know and are committing. Remember they caught the woman in the adultery. They are coming forward to put her to death, but they are keeping hidden the identity of the man even though he too committed the same crime and the law calls for his death as well.

The law also stated that the people who were to throw the first stone were the witnesses. Those who caught the woman in adultery are the ones to throw the first stone. They are also the ones who are keeping hidden the identity of the man. Even one can ask is the man one of the those in the crowd? Was this a set-up using the woman, with him participating?

Now the whole dynamic changes. They are using the woman to undermine Jesus and condemn him and in the process they are filled with sin themselves.

I want to look at what is happening here, because what is happening in this gospel is happening in this country.

They accusers are manipulating the law to their advantage. They have absolutely no charity, when charity decreases legalism increases.

Jesus confronts this attitude and leaves them unable to continue their plans, but they attempt to do so later.

Now remember what is ultimately behind the scenes.

You have a group of people struggling for power in the shadow of the Roman Government. Remember, however, that this Jewish state has only forty years left. Jesus knows this, the accusers do not.

They are turning their back on God, using the law as their sign of devotion to God while in fact they are devoted to their own power. Does this look familiar. You can see the same attitudes of turning from God, exalting the law, using it your advantage and to manipulate power on the front page most newspapers in this country.

Jesus calls us to a standard of charity. This standard is based in love and justice. When we lose this standard, we become self deceived and focus on the law as the standard. This allows us to use the law for our own advantage in a way that exalts one group over another and increases injustice. That increases, dissension, division, resentment, anger and hatred it causes a breakdown weakening in society which eventually happened in Judea.

Always beware of those using the law to enforce their own worldview and power structure, but more importantly always be aware of doing it yourself. Investigate every part of your life that is not connected to God, especially look for those areas that are self-deceived. Remember that no one in the Earth is more legalistic than the Devil, he can cite every law and every infraction of the law. He is after all the accuser. However, there is no charity in the Devil and therefore there is no justice nor love. There is only accusation.

This is what the crowd manifests. Beware of these attitudes in yourself. Justice must be tempered with truth and mercy. When it is untempered and is used to put forth an agenda, justice is used to promote tyranny just as it was here. There is no greater tyrant than the Devil. Jesus responds with the mercy and truth which angers the crowd, mostly like just as much as it angers the devil.

Do not let your justice be a tool of the Devil.

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J. Carr

Fr. Carr an alliance member of the New Song Community, the pastor at St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and the editor of this blog.

Photo Credits:
All but top: http://www.bigstockphoto.com

Top: Public Domain
Top Middle: andres
Bottom Middle: lovleah
Bottom: govicinity

Never before was it so easy to know cultures and persons geographically distant and virtually present. It is easy for virtual companies to arrange even marriages on demand! Adding the characteristics of each participant and the probability of conjugal ‘combination’ is calculated through software online. Ultimately one hears talk of technological robots trained to manifest emotions.

In contrast never did one see a world so chaotic. Today with a simple button one can initiate an atomic detonation capable of starting the 3rd world war. The appeal to the mulitude arrives to cause fear, phobias  . . . it is more assured and pleasurable to lose hours surfing the internet. In the virtual world,: a collection of friends on Orkut, popularity guaranteed. In the real world: a collection of days in solitude in front of the a computer. Never, as now, did one hear talk of such depression, suicide, lost of the sense of life and the appeal to the use of drugs to divert from the tedium of modernity.

It is not a sin to approve the marvels of the moderns world. God does not condemn anyone who may try scientifically to save lives respecting them absolutely. There is no error of enriching onself knowing cultures and strengthening ties, virtual or not. What in fact is contradictory to the real change is the imaginary. It is foolish to exchange a hug, wipe away a tear of nostalgia for an emoticon. Using a text message, I can wwrite “I love you”, but nothing substitutes the faithful company of a loved person in difficult hours of life, of hands given, side by side, until death separate them. For more than the post modern era in the marvels with its discoveries, the man continues always the same, believing through loving and being loved. The Catholic saint. Augustine, who was born in Africa, converted through the prayerful tears of his holy mother after 30 years of hedonism and bohemia wrote: Lord you made us and we are yours! Our hearts are restless until they rest in You!” He had reason! All our curiosity through modernity, has just suffocated the interior center that does not want silence  . . .

We marvel ourselves with whatever modernity gives us. Still we do not forget that the things of the soul are not resolved with the click or an enter button of a computer. Our souls need something more. Someone more: God! He is the same yesterday, today and always (Hebrews 13:8) Always modern!
Your Brother,

Your Brother
Fr. Delton Filho
Assessor of Communication of the Diocese of Uruaçu, Brazil
Coração fiel (Faithful Heart) Community, Rialma, Goias, Brazil
Radio Program Mon-Sat 9:00 ET (USA)
Rádio Coração Fiel http://www.coracaofiel.com.br

Father Delton Filho is also a recording artist.

Translated from Portuguese

It is enough to turn on the TV or to see some film to see only beautiful bodies and faces filling the screen. Also the great intellectuals with many titles are those that have the best places in an organization or in the government.

Very few consider those that have no experience.

Many times in our Church and prayer groups, there are those that sing, preach or evangelize and are considered as touched by God. And the feeling comes to us of that which only those that have gifts and charisms most visible are those chosen or necessarily called to a consecrated vocation in the Church.

But the criteria of God are not the same as those of men.

“He calls each one of us for whom we are, not for that which we can do or we will be able to do.”

If the Lord calls us to his Church, or to be a servant, or to a possible vocation, it is not our intellect or virtues. Nor is it because we sing or preach well. It is simply through his love and mercy that He has fixed his eyes on us. Being unworthy of his call, He makes us worthy, he calls us “his children”

It is not because we may accomplish things that He calls us, but rather because he decided to love us and to choose us.

Moses, is called to free the people from Egypt, however, he stuttered. Samuel, being a child, is called by God. David, being the youngest, was chosen among his brothers. The Church making the choice of some saint as patron of priests for example, St. Augustine, chose, the Cure d’Ars, not for being a great intellectual, but rather for his heart. he was ordained a priest because he knew to pray the rosary.

This is not to say that the Church should be an assembly of ignorant people. We need professionals, but it is not this that makes us chosen by God, but rather, his infinite mercy.

We may be a church according to the heart of God, that is not before God because of titles, but rather because of the “Theology of Being on Our Knees” A Church that sees itself in humble and that puts its heart in front of God.

Daniel,

A member of the New Song Community of Chile

Translated from Spanish

If you possess some devotion, today can be a different day. Near to the saints, and especially those to whom you are devoted, ask for graces, many graces. You will see heaven anticipates itself here.

In these days, my wife Eliana and I we have prayed with Our Lady of Exile.

Try it. There exist special graces that arrive much faster. The saints are a “channel” to Heaven and its graces.

With love and prayers,
your brother,
Ricardo Sá

translated from Portuguese

The proud God resists but to the humble he shows favor. (St. James 4:6)

How much we humble our hearts before the lord so much more He reveals to us and allows us to encounter Him. We ask Our Lady that she may teach us to walk the road of humility, because She follows this path and becomes the example to all our us of this virtue.

Therefore, the Lord is exalted. We pray throughout the day. Jesus, servant and humble of heart, make our hearts like Yours.

Jesus I Trust in You

Luzia Santiago
Co-Founder of the New Song Community

Translated from Portuguese