This is a reconstruction of the homily I gave on April 7, 2019--the Fifth Sunday of Lent. I don't write my homilies, but someone asked for a copy so I tried to recapture it. I gave it at three different Masses, to college women. The readings were
IS 43:16-21
JN 8:1-11 . The woman caught in adultery
“Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43.
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43.
The prophet suggests that creation is an ongoing process. Things are always being made new. This should give us hope.
Hope is the conviction that all will be well. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. This is the mystery of our faith. If we believe it then we will not experience disappointment, stress, or despair in the face of failure or even crucifixion.
It’s like a novel or a movie. .We read or see only what exists at the moment, but in fact, outside of the particular moment the final chapter has already been written; the final scene has already been filmed. Our faith tells us that salvation has been won and that all things have come together in Christ. All is eternally well.
Imagine yourself as the woman caught in adultery. The most stringent upholders of the law–the scribes and Pharisees- have caught you in the very act! You know that the law says you must be stoned to death. How does this feel? How could you possibly have any hope? But the scribes and the Pharisees also have an additional agenda. There’s this guy preaching in the temple who seems rather loose with the law. So they want to test and condemn him and they use you for their purposes.
Now we might say this story is from more primitive times. It was 2000 years ago. But just last week Brunei passed a law to punish those involved in any gay sex and adultery with death by stoning. Last week the Arkansas Congress refused to pass a bill calling for equal pay. Last week the National Rifle Association opposed the violence against women act.
But also last week Muffet McGraw, the head coach of Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team, got even more press for something she said than about her team. She called for more equity and used college basketball as an example of its lack. She said that if men coach 98% of men’s basketball teams, why do only 47% of women’s teams have a woman as head coach? McGraw sees her role as a basketball coach as a way to advocate for gender equality. While speaking to reporters Thursday, she spoke passionately about the lack of women in leadership positions inside and outside of sports. McGraw started by citing the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and acknowledging that while the gender pay gap still exists for all women, women of color are paid even less. She mentioned how less than 5 percent of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women. She sounded rightly baffled that while women make up 50 percent of the population, they make up only a quarter of Congress. He stressed that if this is to change, women must fight for it. We know men will not be handing it to women!
For the past year, I have been a member of a working group of the Association of United States Catholic Priests, whose task is to formulate a declaration on the role and status of women in the church and especially in church leadership. The working group consists of the four men for women. We looked up theological, biological, anthropological, philosophical, scriptural, and theological reasons used to justify the disparity of leadership in the church, and found them all wanting.
We need always to remember that we are not now at the last chapter. We are not now watching the final scene. But we know in faith that the story has ended outside of this moment and that it has ended well. At the end, we are completely fulfilled and at peace.
Di you notice something missing in the story of the woman caught in adultery? You can’t commit adultery alone. What about the man? Who is a stoning him? Why such an unbalance? If there is going to be balance between men and women, it is you, as women, who have to lead the fight for it. But fight in the confidence and the hope that outside of time, in eternal life, all is well. And live in the hope that someday soon it will be a woman- rather than me- sharing her reflection on the readings of the Eucharist with you!
