Living in a Glass House

Last night, Dominican Study Group had another session with Doc and Steve and their Facing History and Ourselves Workshop, and again the discussion was invigorating. It always is.

Tonight, we worked on forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, restorative justice, and what all those ideals entail. We began by reading John 8: 1-11. Then we paired up and discussed the story with a partner, followed by a general discussion.

Zephus and I thought John 8: 1-11 too unrealistic to be true. I recalled children coming to me and telling me "Sonny stole your cigarettes and is smoking them behind the garage..." No way telling them to forgive him because they sin too, would satisfy them. As adults when people come to you with tales of wrongdoing...would they be satisfied with reminding them of their own wrongdoing. Also, pharisees et al were use to arguing, no way would they let Jesus off the hook with a diversion technique. They would have held His feet to the fire: "We're not talking about our sins. We're talking about this women caught in sin!"

So, if the story isn't true, what is it's purpose? That's obvious. It's very theme is carried throughout the New Testament. It was written as an example of Jesus' new Law. Love trumps retribution: forgiveness not Mosaic Law.

What do we learn from John 8:1-11? The obvious observation is that they only have one perpetrator of the crime. Where's the man? It is this omission that told Zeph and me why the crowd dispersed as they did. This was a trick. The pharisees set this woman up, therefore they were accessories to the crime, which makes them even more guilty than the woman. The Old Testament tells us to punish both adulterers Deut. 22:22.

This was a set up and Jesus knew it. What Jesus wrote in the sand isn't important. Most of the crowd couldn't read. Maybe he wrote Jewish law that condemned duplicity and the Pharisees could read it. Maybe Jesus just doodled letting the situation settle in the crowd's minds. Whatever was drawn on the ground wasn't as important as what Jesus said: "Whoever among you is without sin!!!!!!! This is directed to the Pharisees and those who were trying to set Jesus up. They in conniving this situation were worst sinners than the woman.

Let those who were in the planning of this "set up" cast the first stone. Yikes, not even the Pharisees would throw a stone because they in their sin would likewise be calling for prosecution and condemnation for their part in this ruse. When the Pharisees realized the implications of what Jesus was saying, and he gave them time to meditate on it by doodling in the sand. They had no defense. They had to turn away. They walked away.

Without leaders, the crowd gradually dispersed.

The entire New Testament is an elaboration of John 8: 1-11.

In the general discussion I learned that Jesus gave the woman divine forgiveness. She didn't ask for forgiveness, verbally. She acknowledged him as "Lord." He, Himself, the Son of God will pay the penalty for her sins (and ours). She is us; we sin. We are caught by God's justice, we deserve death but Jesus has delivered us.

Doc then showed us a DVD, "Facing the Truth," by Bill Moyers. We saw some of the testimonies of the victims of apartheid in South Africa. They were testifying before Archbishop Tutu and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Need I tell you that their stories were tales of the worst of the human capacity for evil. The depth of the depravity was/is shocking/overwhelming. How do you heal from that? How can one forgive? How do you move on? But that was exactly the purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And for the most part, they succeeded. It had to be tried and for that alone, it was a success.

The injustice and depravity and evil had to be confronted. Plunging into the would of hurt AND ALSO "guilt," had to addressed. What was the alternative--pretending that the past hadn't happened? That would have been a festering wound.

The Archdiocese of Boston should take a lesson from this. Still reeling from "Sex Scandals and Abuse of Power," it is perceived that our Cardinal Archbishop is in the "abortion business". But this is not about the joining of the Caritas Christi Health Care System to the Centene Corporation (provides abortion, and sterilization procedures).

Sorry to digress. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tutu made sure the past was heard, acknowledged, and then reverenced by the nation. It was a nation that collectively grieved. A necessary process, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross would say.

Forgiveness begins with facing the truth, not about forgetting. You can't forget. You forgive in spite of the wrong. Does reconciliation follow? That's the hope. At least, forgiveness is an element of reconciliation.

For we Catholics, forgiveness is a belief. Sin separates us from God and Absolution brings us back to Him.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Transformation

Dominican Study Group was tonight. Steve and Doc, from Facing History and Ourselves, came with a DVD and a CD. We watched "The Lunch Date." It was a cute little story of an obviously "well off" lady in Grand Central Station. She had an armful of shopping bags. The camera panned the surrounding area and showed some sordid characters hanging around. When SMACK, the lady was jostled and dropped her pocketbook and bags. A black man stopped and helped her. All the while they were picking up her scattered stuff, she kept protesting "I'll do it; don't help me; you'll make me late for my train..."

She was too late for the train.

Resigned, she went back into the station with an anxious expression. She seemed to look for something (probably her wallet)but didn't find it. She dug around in her pockets and found enough change to purchase a salad. Pushing her shopping bags into a booth, she settled down to eat, only to realize that she didn't have any eating utensils. Leaving her booth she went to get a fork.

But when she came back, there was a man eating her salad! He might have been homeless, because every black man we saw in this station seemed to be down and out. However, this man never speaks. Even when the lady indignantly accuses him of taking her salad. He looks at her as if she's crazy and just continues to eat. She plops herself across from him and glares at him. He continues to impertinently fork the salad into his mouth. Well! She stabs a piece of that salad and forks it into her mouth. And there we go: his mouth, her mouth...he crunches, she crunches...

Now that I think about it, this is funny. But I was focused on something else. Their demeanor changes. The lady relaxes. He wasn't as uptight as she, but he's more relaxed also. When he's finished, he gets up. Next we see come back to the table with two cups of beverage. The lady was pleasantly surprised. He offers her the sugar on the table but she refuses. Then he takes artificial sweetener from his pocket and offers that. She takes it. Steve quipped that it might have been "Equal."

When they're finished they leave. She walks away and realizes that she left her bags, so she rushes back to the booth and they're not there. She looks around. She walks around. As she's rushing hither and yon, we can see her shopping bags in the booth behind the booth she previously occupied. Finally, she sees that, also. But wait! There on that table is the salad she had originally bought. ??????

She had been sitting at the wrong table, eating some one else's salad and thinking the worse of this man who "stole" her salad.

The lesson was how this lady's perception of people was changed. We hope this was a learning experience for her. Her judgement was challenged and that should have been life altering.
Comparing this story to Mark's gospel was interesting. Mark 8: 14-22 is the story of the apostles not understanding. Like the lady in Grand Central Station in the beginning. Their preconceived judgements are set. Then something happens to challenge them. For the lady it was the realization that she had been wrong: about people, about appearances, about her judgement. For the apostles, especially Peter, that being the Messiah wasn't about miracles, or defeating the Romans. Jesus wasn't about their physical situation. Both the lady and the disciples were transformed. But the process isn't instant. It takes time, and it's a two way process. One has to be open to it.

We want to be transformed. And we do this by acknowledging the need to be changed, pray for it, and work towards it. It's a grace.

Then we watched a music DVD of Stand By Me. It was a suitable closing prayer.

Facing History & Ourselves

My Dominican Study group is having a very interesting workshop. We have two facilitators leading us in a program called, "Facing History and Ourselves." The leaders are teachers: Doc Miller, and Steve Pope.

Tonight we talked about "Identity." We began with reading a children's book, "The Bear that Wasn't," by Frank Tashlin. Simply put, the story is about a bear who hibernates in the winter, while a factory is built above. When he wakes up, he's in the middle of the factory. The foreman yells at him to get back to work. The bear tries to explain that he's a bear and not a man working in the factory. The foreman calls him a "silly man who needs a shave."

The foreman takes the bear to his supervisor, the manager. The manager, likewise thinks the bear is a "silly man who needs a shave." The manager takes the bear to the vice president who also calls the bear a "silly man who needs a shave." And this scenario continues up the line to first vice president to president. Every one tells the bear he is a "silly man who needs a shave."

The president, however, sets out to prove to the bear that he is a "silly man ....."

The bear is taken to the zoo. The bears in the zoo say that he can't be a bear because he isn't like them. He's outside the bars and not inside like they are; therefore he's a "silly man...."

Lastly, the bear is taken to the circus. The bears in the circus say that he can't be a bear because he isn't like them. He's sitting in the stands and not performing; therefore he's a "silly man..."

Soon the bear is brought back to the factory to work. He works just like all the other men. He is acting just like the other men, so he has come to the decision that he must have been deluded. He really is just a silly man who needs a shave.

The factory shuts down for a month and everyone takes a vacation. All the men leave and go to their homes. The bear is left alone. He wonders where his home is. All alone, he has a lot to think about. When it starts snowing, he realizes that not only is he very cold and wet, he's very sleepy. He thinks that if he were a bear, he would be hibernating, now. Maybe, he thinks, that he was right in the first place. He is a bear. Cold, wet, and very tired, the bear finds a cave and burrows down deep down inside the bowels of the cave. As he drifts off to sleep, he has made a conscious decision that he definitely is a bear.

What does this story mean to you? To us, it was the impetus of a very lively discussion. Some of my cloistered brothers have very poignant stories. Everyone has felt peer pressure. Everyone has been judged and been judgemental, themselves. This story was a great ice breaker.