A reading of the holy gospel according to saint Mark. Our lord said to his disciples, do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. That's the old law. I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. Of this much, I assure you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter even, shall be done away with until it all comes true.
That is why whoever breaks the least significant of these commands, teaches others to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of god. Whoever fulfills and teaches these commands shall be great in the kingdom of god. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.
This text is not often quoted. What is often quoted in the light of today's immoralities as regards the sixth commandment when today the number of unmarried people living together is increasing and the divorce rate's going down. The two go together. Today when fornication is considered an indoor sport, and I I don't mean that to be taken as a metaphor. I've heard of young high school boys and girls on an afternoon when they didn't know what to do, they said said, shall we go bowling or shall we have sex?
See, that's the way they refer to fornication these days. It's that it's that commonplace. And I'm not exaggerating this in the least. Danny, if you went over there and saw that, drama the other couple weeks ago called Secret, you'll well, you I don't have to stress this. Now time and time again, I have had, and I'm going to say sincere people, but remember, I'm not interested in their sincerity.
That's between them and God. Who tell me that after what's wrong with a little bit of extramarital sex. They don't use those words, of course. They use such words as living together and, you know, being intimate in a close relationship, all these sin. But we're talking about fornication or adultery.
Fine, old, good English words. And they say, well, now look, Christ didn't condemn. Look what look how he treated that woman taken in adultery. These are the texts they know. Not that they've ever read them, but this is what they've heard.
I say, what about that text? Well, you know, you see that's how they begin. You know. I say, tell me. You're the one brought it up.
Tell me about it. So then they proceed to tell you how Christ was so forgiving for the woman taken in adultery in spite of the law which said she should be stoned. Well, first of all, it shows that they haven't read the text or if they haven't read it, they're illiterate. In other words, they can't read English Because there's not the slightest suggestion in there that our blessed lord criticizes the law. Not the slightest suggestion.
What does course, they haven't to say that they haven't read the law, it's it's it's ridiculous. They don't read anything. I mean this. I'm not exaggerating this. Everything's second and third hand if it's if it's that.
What does the law say? The law of Moses. It says that a woman taken in adultery should is to be stoned. But she has to be taken in the act of adultery. And before she can be stoned, there has to be two or three witnesses to the actual act.
Not circumstantial evidence, but they the woman has to be taken in the act and there has to be witnesses who took her who saw her in the act and then who accuse her. That's the law if you take the time to go back and read it. They wouldn't even know where to find it. So what happens? This the the enemies of Jesus, as usual, they think they've got him right in their clutches because they know if he's a good Jew, he can't reject the law.
And if he lives up to his reputation of benevolence, he cannot order the woman to be stoned. It's called and so they think they've got them got him got him right in their clutches, that he's gotta make a choice of between the two, and he has to take one of them. And either one of them that he takes is gonna prove against him. Alright. What what happens?
The the men who saw and took the woman in adultery bring the woman to Christ and ask Christ, what do you say about the situation? Then they quote the old law. Now what does Christ do? He says, in the end, those of you who are without sin cast the first stone. He doesn't say a word about rejecting the law.
He didn't see the woman taken in adultery. He was not a witness. He is not her accuser. The accuser stand there. And all our lord says is, whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone and no stones are cast.
Notice, there's not in the slightest does our lord reject or condemn or criticize or ignore the old law. He accepts the law. All he says is, those who anyone or those of you who are without sin, go ahead and stone her. And then, you know, is when he rises after he did something in the ground, we don't know what he did. But when he rises, he looks to the woman and he says, where are your accusers?
Christ didn't accuse her. He didn't see her. He was not a witness. And the woman says, they've they've left. Then what does our lord say?
Neither do I condemn you because according to the law, he had no reason to condemn her. Then he says, go and sin no more. Notice, go and sin no more. In other words, she's been a sinner. So that's what that's the that's this what is quoted to you.
Now that's not that's not a parable. That is supposed to be an incident in our lord's life. Take it or leave it. But don't try to tell me or use that as an argument that our lord was benevolent towards adulterers and fornicators or that he was that he was very soft on sinners. In a certain sense, Christ was soft on sinners, but he was hard as nails on sin.
And there's a you see the most people that they I I I mean, so called educated, they can't make this distinction. It's especially true today about all this stuff about homosexuality. People make no distinctions at all. They think they know what they're talking about and they don't. Unless you pin them down and then they accuse you of playing with semantics, just being a magician with world words or worse.
Now, this is a bleak picture, but it's the honest to god picture of the situation. Christ is severe on sin. He came to try to eliminate it or to try to save us from it. There is nothing in the old New Testament, certainly nothing in the old, which makes Christ out to be a a model call, a milquetoast. He is when it comes to sinners.
But that's an entirely different ballgame to use a term from our lord's time. Every town had its own diamond. So take Christ seriously. If we call ourselves Christians, what do we mean when we say that? What significance has it?
What what how does it touch our daily lives? From time to time, you meet people who are they say, I'm a reborn Christian. I opened the rectory door one early morning and a very well dressed lady was there. And the first thing she says to me is, are you a reborn Christian? Now I knew what she meant.
But why are so many of these reborn Christians? Why are they so vigorous? Why are they so outspoken in standing up for Christ? When a lot of our good so called Catholics and Christians are afraid of making the sign of the cross in public, they're afraid to be identified as Catholics. I don't know whether to be afraid is a good word or not, but they don't do it.
They don't do it. And I remember in a restaurant down in Crisfield where a family came in, a father and mother and three children, and they joined hands around the table and and and blessed the board. I could have assured they weren't Catholics. So where do we stand in a world that is not the world of god? We stand opposed to it by being Christians.
So don't think you're going to be received by the world. You're in opposition to the world. You're sandpaper to the world. Never make any mistake. The world's gonna hate you, persecute you, and even kill you.
Our lord said that. I'm not saying it. You say that's a bleak picture. You bet it's bleak. So was Calvary.
So was Christ on the cross. And that's all he promised us, his cross. In the name of the father, the son, and the spirit, amen.