<!--
/* What it does: Remove spaces around the email design added by some
email clients. */
/* Beware: It can remove the padding / margin and add a background
color to the compose a reply window. */
html,
body {
Margin: 0 !important;
padding: 0 !important;
height: 100% !important;
width: 100% !important;
text-align: center;
}
/* What it does: Stops email clients resizing small text. */
* {
-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;
}
/* What is does: Centers email on Android 4.4 */
div[style*="margin: 16px 0"] {
margin:0 !important;
}
/* What it does: Stops Outlook from adding extra spacing to tables.
*/
table,
td {
mso-table-lspace: 0pt !important;
mso-table-rspace: 0pt !important;
}
/* What it does: Fixes webkit padding issue. Fix for Yahoo mail table
alignment bug. Applies table-layout to the first 2 tables then removes
for anything nested deeper. */
table {
border-spacing: 0 !important;
border-collapse: collapse !important;
table-layout: fixed !important;
Margin: 0 auto !important;
}
table table table {
table-layout: auto;
}
/* What it does: Uses a better rendering method when resizing images
in IE. */
img {
-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;
}
/* What it does: Overrides styles added when Yahoo's auto-senses a
link. */
.yshortcuts a {
border-bottom: none !important;
}
/* What it does: A work-around for iOS meddling in triggered links.
*/
.mobile-link footer a,
a[x-apple-data-detectors] {
color:inherit !important;
text-decoration: underline !important;
}
-->
<!--
/* What it does: Hover styles for buttons */
.button-td,
.button-a {
transition: all 100ms ease-in;
}
.button-td:hover,
.button-a:hover {
background: #555555 !important;
border-color: #555555 !important;
}
/* Media Queries */
@media screen and (max-width: 600px) {
.email-container {
width: 100% !important;
}
/* What it does: Forces elements to resize to the full width of their
container. Useful for resizing images beyond their max-width. */
.fluid,
.fluid-centered {
max-width: 100% !important;
height: auto !important;
Margin-left: auto !important;
Margin-right: auto !important;
}
/* And center justify these ones. */
.fluid-centered {
Margin-left: auto !important;
Margin-right: auto !important;
}
/* What it does: Forces table cells into full-width rows. */
.stack-column,
.stack-column-center {
display: block !important;
width: 100% !important;
max-width: 100% !important;
direction: ltr !important;
}
/* And center justify these ones. */
.stack-column-center {
text-align: center !important;
}
/* What it does: Generic utility class for centering. Useful for
images, buttons, and nested tables. */
.center-on-narrow {
text-align: center !important;
display: block !important;
Margin-left: auto !important;
Margin-right: auto !important;
float: none !important;
}
table.center-on-narrow {
display: inline-block !important;
}
}
body {
background-color: #fff;
width: 100%;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
p{
line-height:20px;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5{
color:#7A9534;
}
.signup a {font-family: Roboto Condensed, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;
color: #4F4293; padding-bottom:0px; padding-top: 15px;
font-weight:600; margin-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none}
-->
Catholic Charities USA
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Readings of the Day
[link removed]
In John's Gospel, Christ transforms a moment of terror and
isolation, for the woman caught in adultery, to show her his true
nature. In his actions and words, God reveals who he really is
to her, and he reveals who she is to herself. Perhaps this
woman had been the target of the pride and utility of men in the
past. Her self-image, in relation to God, was likely one of
isolation and shame. Jesus is not only protecting and forgiving
her. He is obliterating the lies that she has been told about
herself and about God. He replaces these lies with love,
forgiveness, protection, and freedom. "Neither do I
condemn you, go, and sin no more."
It is hard to imagine this woman did not believe she was about to
die. Within this hurricane of threats and shame, Jesus turns the
moment on its head. He is calm and all at once in control of the
chaos, as he beckons the Pharisees for "the one without sin to
cast the first stone." He remains still, behind the woman,
in the line of fire. "The Pharisees brought a woman
...and made her stand in the middle." Where once, the
representatives of God stood looking at her in violent accusation and
doubtlessly, in their own lust, using her as a prop object for a trap,
Jesus treats her like a beloved daughter.
He gives all his attention to the woman after the accusers disperse,
and his words to her are marked not only by their love and
forgiveness, but also lightness. "Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?" These are rhetorical
questions. They certainly seem to skewer the importance of the
Pharisees, and to highlight the power that had just been used to
defend her. I imagine he laughed as he spoke them.
This exchange allows her to see God as he truly is. It allows
her to see herself as he sees her. This liberation from a warped
understanding of God is just as powerful an outcome as her protection
from a violent death by stoning. It is a liberation that God
desires to bring to us all. As sinners, we believe we deserve
punishment. A world where God is like the Pharisees can be easier to
believe than God's mercy, which carries an invitation to
vulnerability, and to accept that we are first, loved.
The Pharisees are also clearly undone by Jesus' reaction.
John leaves out the details of the writing in the dirt, or the
expression on Jesus' face. But the conniving mob is
dispersed, with a shockingly concise counterargument from a man they
were moments ago trying to trap in a lose/lose situation.
Jesus invites even the self-appointed executioners to
conversion. Some interpretations imagine Jesus writing out the
sins of the accusers in the dirt. But what if he were offering a
similar liberation to the Pharisees? What if his desire was
their conversion to new sight as well?
Dirt is also the medium of Jesus' healing of the blind man to
new sight. It's interesting that it is a medium of this
interaction too. Jesus is offering both the Pharisees and the
woman a new "seeing" of God. He reveals the truth
through the dirt. This Lent, we can try to let God heal our own
blindness in our dirt. He is always in the dirt with us.
He wants us to see him as he is, not as an accuser. Lent can be
an invitation to surrender our old sight, our old belief in a Pharisee
God, to open our eyes to a God desperately in love with us, physically
with us, always present, breathing and shining through all his
creation. If we let him, God will undo the things within
us that keep us from him. He can show us to ourselves as he sees
us. In accepting this outrageous love, we are transformed.
Patrick Walsh co-manages Martha's Choice Marketplace with Eli
Wenger. Martha's is a choice model food
pantry of Catholic Social Services, Archdiocese of
Philadelphia. At Martha's, thousands of households and
hundreds of volunteers build life giving community through access
to healthy food.
Sign up to receive the Daily Lent Reflection emails and other CCUSA
messages here.
[link removed]
View in your browser |
Forward to a friend |
Unsubscribe
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
2050 Ballenger Ave., Suite 400, Alexandria, VA 22314 | (703) 549-1390
Catholic Charities USA ©
2020 All
rights reserved.
