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Appleton, WI

April 3 Homily Connect

HOMILY REFLECTION GUIDE
APRIL 3, 2022: FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, CYCLE C

WHO IS WITHOUT SIN?: SOLIDARITY WITH EVERYONE

(Suggested opening and closing prayers are on the second page)

ALL ALONE IN A HOSTILE CROWD
• Think of the woman dragged out in public and her sin announced to everyone who gathers.
• There is no compassion in her accusers’ hearts because their hearts are hardened, like the stones, with self-righteousness.
• Jesus enters into a relationship with her with love and mercy. H
• He also points out to her accusers that they are no different from her.
• In fact, because of their own sin they should be able to understand and be compassionate.

LETTING THE PAIN IN AND THE GIFT OF TEARS
• Solidarity with our sisters and brothers begins with compassion, from the root words “com” and “passion,” means “to suffer with” another.
• Compassion is letting someone else’s pain in my heart.
• Pope Francis has lamented that some people may have lost the gift of tears which is a reminder of our solidarity with them.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE
• This sense of solidarity should lead to change of our hearts about issues, if not addressed, result in more suffering for others. But that means making sacrifices for this solidarity.
• Cardinal Cupich admits, “No one should be surprised if voices are raised in opposition to an ethic of solidarity, for when consistently applied, it will make demands on us all.
• Pope Francis encourages us to create a world marked by solidarity, unafraid of how our witness will be received.
• “Serving means working beside the neediest of people, establishing with them first and foremost human relationships of closeness and bonds of solidarity.
• Solidarity, this is a word that frightens the developed world. People try to avoid saying it. Solidarity to them is almost a bad word. But is it our word.”

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
• What in the homily moved you or challenged you?
• Why is it hard to let the pain of others into my heart?
• What demands might be asked of me if I am in solidarity with those who are suffering? What keeps me back from giving myself over to solidarity with others?
• How can Jesus help me with my reservations?

LOVE COMPELS ACTION
• This week how can you live out this call to solidarity with those who are victimized, marginalized, pushed to the side?
• How can we live out this call as a family at St. Mary Parish?

Opening Prayer

Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today by Sister Edwina Gately
Loving Father,

Let us remember how Jesus loved the woman in our Gospel today who was publicly and violently called out in her sin by other sinners.

Soul sister!
Woman freed by grace –
soften our eyes,
melt our hearts,
and loosen from our fingers
the stones we have gathered
and stored in our souls.
In the sun of a late summer
the women gathered
to tell their stories –
so like yours, soul sister!

They remembered with awful sadness,
what once they had been
and all their given labels –
street walkers, drug addicts, women of the night -the fallen and the failures of society.

But no longer.
From fall to fall
they had journeyed,
until one day
they stood up straight,
having heard
for the first time
words of compassion,
having seen
for the first time
(broken open by grace)
a light screaming for freedom
in the depths of their souls.

And they sobbed
for the brightness of the light
and the warmth of its presence.
For years then,
never forgetting that glimpse
of great mercy…

Help us be people of mercy and love. Amen

Closing Prayer

Because We Are Yours
by Catholic Relief Services

Loving Father,

Let us remember how Jesus loved the woman in our Gospel today who was publicly and violently called out in her sin by other sinners.

Soul sister!
Woman freed by grace –
soften our eyes,
melt our hearts,
and loosen from our fingers
the stones we have gathered
and stored in our souls.
In the sun of a late summer
the women gathered
to tell their stories –
so like yours, soul sister!

They remembered with awful sadness,
what once they had been
and all their given labels –
street walkers, drug addicts, women of the night -the fallen and the failures of society.

But no longer.
From fall to fall
they had journeyed,
until one day
they stood up straight,
having heard
for the first time
words of compassion,
having seen
for the first time
(broken open by grace)
a light screaming for freedom
in the depths of their souls.

And they sobbed
for the brightness of the light
and the warmth of its presence.
For years then,
never forgetting that glimpse
of great mercy…

Help us be people of mercy and love. Amen
Loving Father,

I did not know you
But I was yours.
And they do not know me
And I do not know them
But they are mine
And I am theirs.

Let no chasm, no river, no drought or storm,
No war, no exodus, no border, natural or constructed,
No device of man nor devil
Come between us
Or halt the love that burns within me,
The grace that flows from you.

Let me think on no man
unless I think joyful thoughts of brotherhood,
Let me think on no woman
unless I think tender thoughts of sisterhood, Friend and stranger,
Ally and enemy,
Brothers,
Sisters.

They are mine
And I am theirs,
Because we are yours.

Amen