We are experiencing Holy Week or Holy Week. Yesterday’s memory of the Lord Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, when a cheering crowd with palms in their hands shouted: “Hosanna!” and greeted Jesus with enthusiasm. But this crowd soon changed their minds, and in Pilate’s court later cried, “Death, crucify him!”

We also change our thinking quickly. Jesus said: “No one has greater love than the one who lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13), and Jesus also lays down his life for his enemies. Our sins, weaknesses, and imperfections led Jesus to the act of redeeming humanity. For this, we should thank Jesus. When it is so self-evident that we can say thank you for a rendered service, it should be all the more true for our eternal salvation. The actions of Mary – Lazarus’ sister, when she anointed Jesus’ feet, should lead us to thank Jesus within ourselves. We have much to be thankful for. We know our weaknesses, mistakes, our mistakes, and falls. Let us kneel at the feet of Jesus and instead of the precious ointment that Mary used, let’s lay at the feet of Jesus our goodwill that we want to change our life. At the same time, let’s thank Jesus that he decided to do such a painful and important act for us, freely and willingly giving himself to the torturers only to erase our sins. Apologizing and giving thanks in this season of Lent is so honorable and necessary for each of us. Whoever has shown us friendly service in our daily life, whoever has helped us in need, we are grateful to him, and therefore we thank him as best we can. We realize that we humans are weak and often unstable. That is why we should thank and ask all the more. 

We can also be reminded of this idea by the comparison of the preacher Johann Tauler, who vividly points out what human errors can be used for A horse makes dung in the stable, and although it is clogging dirt, it has to be led with great effort to the field, where it grows from the fertilized earth grain. Believe me, it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the manure. Well, your dung is the shortcomings that you can neither remove nor postpone – so with the effort, you bring them to the field of God’s will in humility and meekness. Undoubtedly, a noble harvest will emerge from it.

This week, our place before the cross is on our knees… No one needs to be ashamed of this gesture, on the contrary, the more we love, the more this gesture means salvation and reward for us. We must not become a crowd that shouts, “Hosanna!” and immediately, “Death, crucify him!” Our effort must be to consciously and voluntarily walk towards our goal: Christ, and in this Lenten season thank him like Mary, sister of Lazarus.

But what does this mean? What is “my” will as opposed to “your” will? What is it that they are opposing here? The Father and the Son? Is the man Jesus and God alone in the Trinity? In no other place
Holy Scripture do we see inside the mystery of Jesus as deeply as in the prayer on the Mount of Olives? Therefore, no it is no coincidence that the efforts of the ancient Church to understand the person of Jesus reached their final form thanks to the reflections of the faith over the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
At this point, we must look briefly at the Christology of the ancient Church to understand its concept of the interrelation of the divine and human will in the person of Jesus Christ. The Council of Nicaea (325) contributed to the clarification of the Christian understanding of God. The three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are one, having a single divine “essence.” More than a hundred years after this first Council, the Council of Chalcedon (451) attempted to capture the interrelationship of divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ in a formulation according to which in him the one person of the Son of God is “unmixed and undifferentiated form” includes and bears both natures – human and divine. Thus, the infinite distinction between God and man, between Creator and creature: the human being remains human, and the divine being remains divine.

The divine in Jesus did not swallow up or reduce him to humanity. His human being is still present, but at the same time contained in the divine person of the Logos. In the undiminished difference of natures, the term One Person expresses the radical unity with man into which God entered in Christ. This formulation – two natures and one person – originates in the timeless intuition of Pope Leo the Great, which immediately received enthusiastic assent on the part of the Council Fathers. It was, however, an intuition whose concrete meaning at that time had not yet been explored in depth. What does “naturalness” mean? Well, in particular: what does “person” mean? Since this was not yet clear to the will, several bishops after The Council of Chalcedon declared that they did not want to think like Aristotle, but rather like the fishermen. The whole formulation remained unclear. Therefore, the reception of the Council of Chalcedon had a very turbulent history and was marked by considerable struggle. In the end, there was such a division: only the Roman and Byzantine Churches accepted the Council and its formulation in its definitive form. Alexandria (Egypt) preferred to stick to the formulation of the “one divine nature” (monophysitism); in the East, Syria the notion of a person maintained a skeptical distance, because it seemed to undermine the real humanity of Jesus (Nestorianism). More powerful than concepts, however, were the types of religiosity that stood in opposition to each other and irreconcilably polarized this opposition by the force of religious feeling.

The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon remains for the Church of all times a binding orientation on the way to the mystery of Jesus Christ. We must reclaim it in the context of our thinking, in which the concepts of “nature” and “person” have taken on a different meaning than they had then. This effort of re-appropriation must go hand in hand with ecumenical dialogue, which must also be conducted with the pre-Chalcedonian churches, to bring about the lost unity in the center of our faith, which is the confession of God made man in Jesus Christ. In the great struggle that took place after the Council of Chalcedon, especially in the Byzantine area, it was essentially a question of the nature of Jesus, if there is only one divine person in him that includes both natures. Can this human nature, contained in a single divine person, exist in its specificity and authenticity? Is it not necessarily absorbed in divinity, at least in its highest layer, which is the will? This proclaims the last of the great Histological heresies, “monotheism”. In one person, monotheism maintains, there can be only one will.
A person with two wills would be schizophrenic. A person ultimately manifests himself in the will, and if there is only one person, it follows that there is only one will. In contrast, however, the question arises: What would be the man who had no human will of his own? Would a man without a bed, be a real man? In Jesus, did God become truly human if this man has no will? The great Byzantine theologian Maxi m Confesses no (f 662) elaborated the answer to this question in the context of the efforts to understand Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Above all, Maxim was a staunch opponent of raonothelitism: unity with the Logos does not cripple Jesus’ human
nature; it remains fully human. And human nature includes the will. But this inherent duality of human and divine will in Jesus cannot lead to the schizophrenia of a dual personality. Therefore, the nature of and the person must always be considered according to their specific ways of being. That is, there is a “natural will” of human nature in Jesus, but it is only, one “personal will” which incorporates the “natural will”.

People ask, “Did it have to happen?” Some will say it was fate, others will say it was ordained by God from eternity. Yes, God from eternity knows everything. This is also how we look at Caiaphas’ actions. After the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus gained many followers. Many Jews were present at the resurrection because they were to comfort Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus when Jesus came and manifested His power before their eyes. Even the high council was involved in this in their meeting because they are worried about their power, which none of them will say, but they want to turn their problem in a different direction. They are afraid that Jesus led an open rebellion against the Romans, and they destroy Jerusalem. It is a paradox that it was they who longed for such a revolutionary, that he would free them from the hated Romans.

It was Caiaphas, who was a high priest that year, who took advantage of this situation in the great city, he said: “You know nothing. You do not realize that it is better for you if one man dies for the people and the whole nation does not perish” (Jn. 11:49-50).

With bitter irony, the evangelist describes Caiaphas the high priest as the political leader of the Jewish nation. He observes with concern that Christ’s ministry is stirring up a movement unacceptable to the people, who may openly oppose him as well. He explains to the others what would eventually follow: They would lose their freedom, their temple, and their income. By the statement “you know nothing” with which he admonishes the undecided Great Council, he touches himself, for even he does not know that the death of Christ, which he seeks, will destroy the old Israel, its law and covenant, and thus a new Israel and a new covenant, or New Testament, will be established. We can say that Caiaphas at this point is unwittingly prophesying that Jesus will die not just for a nation but for all mankind, to gather the scattered sheep into one flock.

We know that Jesus was not a victim of chance and that his crucifixion and death were not mere execution, mistake, etc. Though they all thought they had a part in it, they did not think that this was the death that redeems, for which mankind through the prophets had cried and pleaded so much. We know that behind the actions of all those who were instrumental in the death of Jesus, whether it was Judas who betrayed, Caiaphas and Annas who demanded from Pilate the death of Christ, whether it was Pilate who pronounced the sentence and washed his hands, whether it was the deceived multitude in Pilate’s courtyard-these were all in the hands of God and were fulfilling that which is behind the words: He gave his Son as a ransom sacrifice for all. We also see that Jesus did not resist arrest or condemnation, and that was only because He had willingly accepted His condemnation and death long before these events began. The will of the Heavenly Father and the irrevocable consent of Christ made his execution on the cross a redemptive act. Everything was in the plan of God. And He used people for His redemptive mission as well. It is with this thought that we enter into next week, which we also call Holy Week because these events are still alive and relevant to us.

Some who have power, money, and fame in their hands, make themselves gods. However, their divinity quickly crumbles. Hitler, Stalin, and others acted like gods. They decided not only on things but also on human lives … and today? Who will reverently remember their name? Mankind feels that man cannot be God. And yet we believe in God the Creator and God the Judge.

The Gospel tells us how the Jews want to stone Jesus because he pretends to be God. We need to understand their actions. As a single nation, they believe in one God, whose coming they expect, whose coming the prophets predict. They believe in God, who will free them from the state which man got after insulting God. We must understand that the Jews often had to defend themselves against the surrounding nations even in the area of ​​belief in one God because the surrounding nations believed in polytheism – polytheism. We know from history that God punished the Jews in various ways, especially when they wanted to be like God. However, they do not understand Jesus’ words. They don’t even understand Jesus’ deeds and miracles, and that’s why they want to stone him. Peter answers Jesus’ question of whether they also want to leave him by saying: “Sir, and who would we go to? You have the words of eternal life. And we believed and recognized that you are God’s Holy One” (Jn 6:68-69). Peter’s confession here also says that they considered Christ to be “God’s Holy One”.

The evidence should serve us so that we too show our respect to Christ, give him honor, so that we believe in Christ, our Savior, and Redeemer. We not only subscribe to that teaching, but also implement it in our lives. We realize that all abilities, talents, and gifts we have received from God, and therefore we fight against pride, which is the basis of every open attack against God. Angels already wanted to be like God, so the devil and his followers shouted: “Nonserviam!” – “I will not serve!” We also see the pride in the grandparents in paradise. The tempter addresses them with the words: “… you will be like God… and they will know that they are naked” (Gn 3,5-7).

The desire to be God has led and will lead more than one person directly to crazy deeds, which sooner or later will fail, because being God does not belong to the creature, but to the Creator. We have convinced ourselves countless times that always after showing respect and paying tribute to God, our life is filled with a special power. Therefore, we feel that after each such encounter with God, we want to meet him again and pay our respects to him. On the contrary, after sin, we feel our defeat, pain, and disappointment. This is also a serious lesson for us in life.

When problems come into our lives, when the pride of life grabs us, when we desire power, fame, wealth without Jesus, or at the cost of betraying Jesus, let’s ask now to pray well then I believe in God

Reevaluate your responsibility to Jesus.

We all know that Holy Week begins today. We want to live the events that we will remember, as Christians should…? It can be assumed that we could live them only as a memory, aurally, as an annual tradition… And such an approach would be wrong, dishonest, and irresponsible on our part. One event can tell us something.

At the end of his life, the Permian emperor Chores called his advisers and asked them: “Do you think I was a good emperor?” Don’t be afraid to tell me the truth. As a reward, I will give each a jewel.” One by one, the counselors came before the emperor and flattered him with nice words. When it was the turn of the wise Elaim, he said: “Please, my lord, let me be silent, because the truth cannot be bought.” The emperor replied to these words: “Good. Then I won’t give you anything. Then you may tell me your opinion directly.” Elaim continued: “My lord, I think you are a man with weaknesses and faults like us. But your faults are much heavier, for the whole nation groans under the burden of taxes. You should lead fewer wars and you shouldn’t live so luxuriously at the expense of the nation.” The emperor thought. Then he gave each counselor the promised gem. However, he appointed Elaim as his chancellor. The next day the councilors came and said to the emperor: “Our Lord, order that the merchant who sold you the gems with which you gifted us be justly punished because he sold you fake gems.” “I know that,” answered the emperor. “They are as false as your words are.”

We know that God does not like our falsehood. On the contrary, God rightly demands from us our responsibility towards his souls. A memento for us is the inscription on the cross: “This is the king of the Jews” (Luke 23:38).

We long for heroes, we want to have role models and idols… It was like that even in the time of Jesus. However, we cannot look at Jesus as a hero. Jesus did not desire human glory, power, or titles. When people wanted to make Jesus king, after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus retreated alone into silence. To Pilate’s question: “Are you the king of the Jews?” He answered: “You say so yourself” (Luke 22:3). A true and correct explanation is given by St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians: “Jesus Christ, although he has a divine nature, did not hold to his equality with God, but denied himself, took the nature of a servant, became like men, and according to external appearance was considered a man. He humbled himself, became obedient even to death, even to death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8). Jesus faithfully fulfilled his mission.

The Gospel, which we also call the “passion”, is the culmination of the three-year mission of Jesus on earth. We are assured that everyone who will follow him will fulfill his words, and will share in the fact that Jesus has overcome the power of sin. Jesus underwent everything that today’s Gospel tells about so that every person who joins him would share with him in his kingdom. The evangelists, therefore, remind us of Jesus’ words: “I have longed to eat this Passover lamb with you before I suffer. For I say to you: I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:15-16). Jesus goes through all this so that everyone who joins him may share with him in his life. Jesus does not promise what He cannot give. However, Jesus requires everyone who wants to share with him in his kingdom to faithfully and responsibly fulfill everything he taught.

The events of Palm Sunday are not just memories, but a call to a radical following of Christ. Jesus, in connection with Judas, reminds us: “Woe to the man who betrays him” (Lk 22:22). The memento of betrayal is not lost even today. On the contrary. We are all aware of our responsibility for the salvation of our souls. We are obliged to live in the truth of Jesus’ words. A lie – a sin, cannot and must not be rewarded by participation in his kingdom. Even if we find ourselves in the situation of St. Peter, that we too deny Jesus, we are obliged to continue to act like him: “He went out and wept bitterly” (Lk 22,62) The pain of the soul over-committed sins belongs to Holy Week, that is, regret.. This week, we have to relive the greatest drama in history. We want to consciously and voluntarily be with the suffering and crucifixion and the resurrected Jesus. We feel our responsibility for the salvation of our soul, but also the souls of the brothers and sisters entrusted to us. This serious matter will not allow us to survive this week superficially, habitually, without personal participation. Being responsible for the salvation of souls is the most necessary thing to which we want to subordinate everything else.

The mother of her ten-year-old daughter, with whom they started having problems, is also aware of this. It was during the big week. The girl came to her mother saying she wanted to go to the movies with her friends. “All the girls go and I can’t? Why? Why can’t I?” Just then, mom was preparing a cake. The mother turned to her daughter with a request. “Where are the rotten eggs I found on the top shelf today?” “In the trash can. Why?” “Bring them to me, please.” “What do you want to do with them?” “I’ll put them in a cake.” “Rotten eggs? You’ll spoil a good cake!” “When I spoil a cake,” continued the mother in her dialogue with her daughter, “I can always throw it away. But if you don’t know how to deny yourself one movie in Holy Week, aren’t you doing even more damage to your soul?” The daughter understood her mother.

It is right that none of us wants to miss this week of gaining new graces and powers for our life. Our Christian honor includes something more than just surviving the week during which we remember the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. We realize that we have a time of grace and salvation ahead of us. We want to help each other by example. We want to live our church and social life in such a way that we give the best testimony of our faith.

The fake diamonds did not appease the councilors. We are convinced that even a false approach to the events of this week cannot satisfy anyone. Vice versa. May the Truth, Jesus Christ, prevail in our lives. He invites us, not only today to the procession with the branches, to his table on Thursday – the Eucharist, Friday to the cross, and Saturday and Sunday to the empty tomb. Today’s “Hosanna”, after Good Friday’s “Crucify Him”, will sound much more joyful and convincing on Sunday morning with the singing of “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah”. Let’s pray for each other’s strength until this week. 

What do we mean by decision-making? How many times a day do we have to deal with things quickly; what to do first, what to pay more attention to, who to pay more respect to… This dispute takes place in the polemic about the sonship of Abraham. Jesus points out that he has priority over Abraham. “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing. But my Father glorifies me, of whom you say: “He is our God” and you do not know him. But I know him” (Jn 8:54-55).

Jesus proves that he was given priority by God over Abraham, who was a man and was born in time. However, Jesus is the incarnate Word who is eternal and who was with God before all ages, even before the creation of the world. Jesus proves to them that he was earlier than Abraham: “Your father Abraham prayed that he would see my day, and he saw and rejoiced” (Jn 8:56). The Jews see only a young man in front of them. Jesus was 33 years old, so they say to him: “You are not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:57).

They do not understand that Jesus is the Son of God, equal to God the Father, who does not know the concept of time, that is, he was first like Abraham, whom Jesus’ Father-God calls from Chaldean Ur to an unknown land: the land of Canaan and promises him that redemption will come from his descendants. … Jesus teaches that he is equal with God the Father. So Jesus was God and man in one person. He became like us in everything, took the body of the Virgin Mary, was born, lived among us, died. However, He was always and always God, and He did not cease to be God even for a moment, even when He took upon Himself the form of a man. We will understand everything only in the overall context of the teaching about love. No one could love more than Jesus, because he gave his own life for us. He wanted to propitiate his Father for the sins of all mankind. This had to be done by one who was equal to God the Father and at the same time was close to people. Therefore, this could only be accomplished in such a way that from eternity God the Son, the second divine person, the true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, took upon himself the form of a man to do what no man could ever do, nor all men together, to atone the offense committed by the creature in offending God-the-Father by transgressing his command.

Today, we don’t just see the physical form of Jesus Christ, but we see the true God in Jesus. The one before whom we will one day come, whom, according to his own words, if we persevere to the end, we will see face to face. This obliges us to honor Jesus Christ as God. That is why our knees bend before the cross, before the images that represent Jesus Christ. In this way, we pay respect and tribute to the God whom we love, to whom we want to belong completely and whole, to whom we beg, to whom we beg, to whom we give thanks.

Even though the Jews did not accept the truth of Jesus and wanted to stone him; nothing came into being before he was, for he is from eternity. We believe that heaven and earth will pass away, but his existence knows no end.

Am I a disciple of the Lord Jesus? Who belongs to Jesus? Who is a true disciple of Jesus? The one who perseveres in his words, who knows the truth and gains freedom from evil, who understands suffering, knows how to rise above the pettiness that confronts us in life. Who before God is a true disciple? Jesus says this: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31-32). posterity, and we have never enslaved anyone” (John 8:33).

We see that they do not want to give up their right to the election because they come from Abraham’s seed. Jesus wants to show them what their mistake is. They are to realize that although they feel themselves to be sons of Abraham, they are to realize even more that they are sons of God. This means that they must place the sonship of God above the sonship of Abraham. It follows that if they recognized God as their Father as they claim, they would love Jesus as the Son of God and would persevere in his word. Thus, they would become true disciples of Jesus Christ. Then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free from sin. But they don’t want this. That is why Jesus tells them: “…you want to kill me because my word does not take hold in you. I speak of what I have seen with the Father” (Jn 8:37-38).

This problem continued even after the sending of the Holy Spirit, when it happened that the Jewish Christians, that is, the Jews who accepted the teachings of Christ, did not want the Gentiles who accepted the teachings of Christ to accept circumcision as well. They still looked at their election only according to the fleshly origin, that is, they came from the family of Abraham. With this, Jesus tells them to accept his teaching, the teaching of “truth”, and thus become a new person.

Today, we do not base ourselves on any bodily origin. The door to the teachings of Jesus Christ is open to everyone and is not closed to anyone. The condition is that we not only believe Jesus’ words but also implement them in our lives. If we live according to the truth, that is, without sin, we will gain freedom and the right to a new, eternal life. As long as we live here on earth, we must always be aware of the fight against evil, so we cannot always want Jesus to protect us from suffering. On the contrary, in the crosses that are placed on us, we are to prove that we are true children of God.

We know from the lives of the saints that when they gave themselves whole and completely to Christ when they truly lived Paul’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” they recognized that Jesus’ teaching made them free. Even today, many believe that when they faith, the teaching of Christ forbids something because it takes away their freedom. The life of a believing Christian is worthy of reward or punishment. Therefore, above everything, why we work, what we want, what we own, above everything, let us set one goal, ultimate and true, and that is the fulfillment of God’s will in everything. A life lived in this way, when we are faithful to Christ even in little things, will say that we belong to Christ

It is known that we think little about death. We also witness that when we know that our relative is lying on his deathbed, the doctor gives up and science does not help, there are also cases where we deceive ourselves and those who should prepare to meet God as believers. However, our faith teaches us that our coming into the world was not an accident and that the end, the death of a person, is not a definitive end, but a transition to a new life.

To the Jews who did not want to accept the teachings of Christ, when Jesus knew that the fulfillment of his mission on earth was near, he said: “You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (Jn 8:23). From the events, the words of the Lord Jesus, it is known that the Jews cannot accept and understand two things: they do not know where Jesus comes from and where he is returning. This they do not understand, even though he keeps telling them that he came from the Father and is returning to him again. Jesus knows that his departure to the Father will be accomplished by his death and suffering. It seems that this departure of his is understood by the Jews as the death of suicide and they, on this path of his, they do not want and cannot follow, but whoever wants to really follow, find and understand the Lord Jesus must believe that his death is the ransom price for the world.This means that when Jesus is lifted on the cross, he will be able to heal and heal all people who are bitten by the sin of the serpent. With the help of faith, people can understand that Jesus is the Son of God, who by his death on the cross reconciled the Father for our sins, and thus showed us the way to his Father, that is, he became a “way” for us.

For us believers, these words are not a path to pessimism and hopelessness, but on the contrary, they are hope and optimism for us. A person of faith, even if it is difficult when saying goodbye to his loved ones at the moment of death, knows that it is not the final end, and therefore we must not take death tragically. Remembrance of her is not the reason for us to break in our attitude. Lord Jesus is our model and example. We see that for Jesus, his death by going to the Father was a victorious ending of life.

It is necessary for us believers to adopt this attitude of Jesus and learn to live with the thought of death. It is wonderful when a person does not have to fear that death can meet him anywhere and at any moment, that he is always ready to appear before this Christ in whom he believed, according to whose words he tried to live and whose reward he hoped and believed. It is amazingly beautiful and valuable to live in the presence of God and to be able to accept his will, be it at midnight or in the morning.

For us, today’s Gospel is a lesson that the suffering and death predicted by Jesus are a guarantee of new life. Michael Quist in the poetry collection Your eyes writes in the poem “Lord, I don’t have time…” and after recognizing the meaning and value of Jesus’ words, he exclaims in the end: “Lord, I already have time!” This should find a response We should not only realize that we have to find time, but we should also say to Jesus more often: “Lord, I already have time!

Let us imagine God as mercy. “I don’t judge you, either. Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

The Gospel shows us, sinners, when we accuse other sinners before Jesus. We can have more perspectives on the passage about the woman caught in sin, the behavior of those who brought her before Jesus, and the behavior of Jesus. It is necessary to realize that the gospel leads us to humble behavior and acknowledge our sinfulness, as well as the fact that the forgiveness of sins comes from Jesus. The recipients of the gospel are us, each of us. The Pharisees are satisfied with their pseudo-righteousness and will not receive the mercy that was given to the woman they brought to Jesus. The woman is aware of her situation. According to the Law of Moses, for her weakness, of which she was caught and is now accused, she was sentenced to death by stoning. It is true that in the time of Christ, such punishments were rarely carried out. However, the Pharisees are not so much concerned with the woman as they are with attacking Jesus, whom they hated, because he thought differently from them, reproached them for their hypocrisy, and drew people behind him.

They tempted Jesus so they could accuse him. According to them, the answer they expected from Jesus should be either strict rightist or lax. And one answer or another was to be used against Jesus. Jesus found himself in a situation where he had to take a stand on the fate of a person drawn into responsibility through the authority of power. However, Jesus does not reject law and justice, and he also did not reject mercy but gave justice and mercy a true meaning. The Pharisees did not expect such a masterly answer. Jesus told them: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). In these words, the Pharisees understood that they are not without sin either. There are other sins, such as adultery. They, too, have their sins. Jesus gave them a moral lesson in just a few words. Can anyone immediately ask: “And where was the accomplice, the accomplices…?” John writes: “When they heard this, one by one – starting with the elders – they disappeared until he (Jesus) remained alone with the woman who was standing in the middle” (John 8:9). They left, but their shame had nothing to do with humility.

A serious reminder to each of us – regret? The proverb says: “A crow sits with a crow, and equal seeks equal.” Or: “Wolf with wolves.” They easily destroy their conscience and others as well. We are weak people. However, when we humbly confess our sins and awaken in our hearts pain over our sins and those of others, we can expect mercy from our God. He is our God. We know that when we renounce sin again and again, we are strengthened in our love for Christ. We realize the significance of Christ’s suffering for our sins. God is a just Judge, but he is also merciful. We want to live in Christ and Christ to live in us