Happy Blessed Sunday Everyone!

In this fifth Sunday of Lenten season of the Catholic Tradition, God reminds us the importance of showing love and mercy to other people through giving of forgiveness. But how can we give our forgiveness to others if our hearts are full of anger, hatred, vengeance, disgust, and dislike? How can we show our love and mercy if our hearts and minds are even preoccupied with lot of deadly sins like pride, envy, greed, lust gluttony, wrath and sloth? What we need is to confess our sins to God. Through sin, we are disconnected with God's grace and love. Through reconciliation, our hearts will be cleansed. If we have a clean heart, it is easy to forgive.

The way God forgives us is different the way we forgive our brethren. For today's gospel, it talks about a woman caught in adultery. According to the law of Jews, Moses commanded to stone that woman until she dies. My question is, is that really the will of God to take away one's life? Like an issue of divorce, Jesus said that the reason why Moses allows a man to separate his wife just because the people are hard headed or stubborn. My point is, divorce is not the will of God. But if the relationship of the couple did not work anymore because it is getting worst when they live together, better to separate but never to love and marry again with another man or woman.

Going back to the main topic, everyone of us is deserved for second chance. God gave us hope despite how many times we failed and committed mistakes. He forgave us when we are begging and asking His mercy and forgiveness. He remains faithful even if we are unfaithful to Him. We rejected His call. We ignored His commandments. We failed to love Him back. But God is slow to anger and He is full of mercy and forgiveness. But we should not of course abuse His goodness.

Love the sinner and hate the sin. That was what Jesus did to a woman who caught adultery. He gives hope to a woman for a change. He did not even condemn the sinner but He forgives the sinner. Instead of giving punishment to adulterer, He commanded the woman to go and sin no more. If Jesus did not condemn nor punish nor judge the woman, who are we to give penalty to someone who committed sins? Who are we to kill the sinners who are also deserved for second chance?

One time, we have a good conversation with my officemate. We talked about politics and he said because I am loyal to the church my presidential candidate is Lugaw. I never react. Within our long conversation together with my wife, he mentioned the death penalty to be imposed again in our country. I explained to him the stand of the church with regards to that issue and quoted some Bible verses. I told him death penalty is not a work and will of God. He cited a crime like rape. He insisted that rapist should be penalized to death. Then I told him, what if it happens to your brother who will commit rape and he was scheduled for electric chair? Could you not feel pity for your brother? He was silent.

Death penalty is not really the solution. We are not God to take away one's life. If Jesus gave hope to a woman who caught in adultery, why we christians especially in the government allow to kill some drug addicts, users and pushers? They were just victims of lack of proper guidance from the parents or in other cases maybe, they were the victims of corrupt and greedy people. Why not to punish the drug Lords? If there is no drug lord, there's no drug. If there's no drug, no more addict. If there's no addict in our society then we live peacefully and less crime will happen. Love the drug addicts and hate the drugs.

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Writer's note

I wrote this article based on the real situation of our society or country. Let there be God who will reign in our hearts to have peaceful mind. If we have received God's mercy, who are we not to give mercy to other people? If we are loved by God, who are we not to love others even to our enemies? If we have given chance to change and renew our lives, who are we not to give also our brethren an opportunity to be hopeful despite of being sinfulness.

Forgiving is the best expression of self-love. If you forgive, you free yourself from hatred, pain, agony, anger, hatred, vengeance and stress, thus making you free yourself from sickness and malady.

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Don't interpret my article but reflect and meditate. Don't judge me, because who am I to judge you too?

What is your insight to this article? Feel free to make some comments below.

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