Carl Jung is famous for
formulating the concept of the shadow, the portion of our personality which,
through the course of our life, is relegated to the darkness of the
unconscious. The shadow goes by many
familiar names: the disowned self, the lower self, the dark twin or brother in
bible and myth, the double, repressed self, or our alter ego. When we come
face-to-face with our darker side, we use metaphors to describe these shadow
encounters: meeting our demons, wrestling with the devil, our dark night of the
soul, or midlife crisis.” Although the
shadow is an innate part of the human being, the vast majority of us are
willfully blind regarding its existence. We try so hard to hide our negative
qualities, not only from others but from ourselves. To do this we often cast the first stone by criticizing
or condemning others, when we recognize in them the same faults and destructive
tendencies, we’ve worked so hard to bury, all while attempting to maintain our
desired image of holiness.[2]
In the Gospel today, we read
about a crowd who brings a woman before Jesus citing the Mosaic law requiring
that those caught in adultery must be put to death, with stoning being the
preferred method. Now we could talk
about the woman’s sin, we could talk about the other adulterous partner not brought
before Jesus, we could talk about the crowd’s trickery and the elder’s shadow behaviors,
but let’s talk about the stones. If we
read ahead to chapter 9 in the Gospel of John, we would find that after Jesus
convinces this crowd to drop their stones and walk away, there’s a different
crowd picking up stones again—this time to throw at Jesus! Then a few years later, after the
Resurrection, we hear in the Acts of the Apostles, that another crowd gathers
around deacon Stephen—successfully stoning him to death. Yet there is another type of stone used in
the ancient world, the large stone used to seal up a tomb.
We know the story as our Lenten
journey has us on the road to Jerusalem, how it’s going to end for Jesus. We know Jesus will be crucified and die. We know he will be taken down from the cross
and laid in a tomb. We know the entrance
of the tomb will be sealed with a large stone.
Do you know what else is sealed in that tomb? All of our sins. The sins of the Prodigal Son. The sins of the Woman Caught in
Adultery. Your sins and my sins.
When Mary Magdalene was returning
to the tomb early Sunday morning, she was worried about who was going to roll
that huge stone away for her. You see:
stones, large and small, real or figuratively cast from our shadow self, can be
a real problem. Mary couldn’t have
imagined what had happened. Her dead
Savior, now alive—and all our sins, now forgiven—had already burst forth from
the tomb. The large stone that was
suppose to keep our Savior and our sins in the tomb forever was no obstacle for
God’s plan for our salvation.
As much as we might want to keep
our sins locked up, all sealed in the tomb of our hearts, the Resurrection
demands that the huge stone we’ve used to seal up our sins in our shadow tomb
must be rolled away. All so that
Salvation and Forgiveness and New Life can burst forth. Only God can roll away the stone at the
entrance of our hearts.[3]
In the woman brought before him,
Jesus recognized the people he came to save.
She is Israel of yesterday, the prophet Hosea’s wife, the figure of the
people covenanted but not always faithful; and she is the Church of today and tomorrow,
who Jesus loves and for whom he will sacrifice himself, to release her, to
release us from slavery to sin.
St. Paul tells us of his desire
to be fully identified with Christ, conscious that he will not achieve this by
his own efforts but only by God’s grace and justice. The new justice to which Paul refers is
exercised through a restored relationship that springs from merciful love.[4] The same merciful love we can experience in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation and by being a full and active participant in
this worship community and these sacred mysteries, we call the Eucharistic celebration.
We must stop dwelling on past
experiences, or we seal our heart to something new God desires for us. Lent keeps us focused on Jesus and seeing our
lives in the light of his mercy. Forget
what lies behind. Strain forward to the
life with Christ that lies ahead.[5] Let’s let go of our ancient stones to realize
God is doing something new with and through us.
[1]
New
American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986. Scriptures: Is 43:16-21;
Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11.
[3]
Hungry, and You Fed Me: Homilies & Reflections for Cycle C. by Fr.
Richard Rohr, O.F.M. © 2012. Clear
Vision Publishing, Manalapan, NJ
[5] Living the Word, Year of
Luke, by Laurie Brink, O.P. and Paul H. Colloton, O.S.F.S © 2018. World
Library Publications.
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