Fr. Foeckler’s Lecture Note- Apr 9th, 2025

[Michaela]

Fr. Foeckler’s Lecture Note

 

Gospel (Year C Reading)

John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

 

There’s a controversy, this text is not in every bible. It is in the early Roman bible, but not in all.

This was excluded, determined by the church. Confirmation is the fact that the church is uses it, verifies by the practice of the church is that confirmed by God, and offers something to meditate in the Lent.

This describes the hostility between the authority, pharisees and Jesus. Often times, they wanted to arrest him. During Lent, we are hearing the conflicts more and more. The setting is in the Tabernacle Feast, which is usually during the fall. How is the test presented to Jesus? They wanted to trap Him. They created dilemma. Moses said if one commits adultery, he/she must be stoned to death. What would Jesus say? Jesus says to stone her, agreeing what Moses says, but he tells them one who is sin-free has to do that. We do not have the right to condemn them.

Pilates was presented with Jesus, Jewish people wanted him to condemn Jesus.

 

If Jesus condemned the woman, he would break the Roman law who has right to condemn someone in that time. If He did not, He is contradicting Moses.

 

Jesus was writing something. Nobody knows what he wrote. 1. Maybe the sins. 2. May be the names. 3. Maybe just doodling. What Jesus is doing is filling a prophesy. Back then, people were worshiping other gods in the temple. Jeremiah says in the prophesy, the God writes names in the dirt.

Some people argues Jesus condoning an adultery. He doesn’t condemn her. Jesus was left alone with the woman. Yesterday’s reading and gospel are exemplifying about two witnesses needed for capital punishment.

 

Go, but do not sin anymore, which echos something earlier today, when He cures one that suffered with disease for his lifetime.

 

In Lent, sign of repentance is important, to try not to sin again is important. We need to do something concrete not to sin anymore.

 

Reading II

Philippians 3:8-14

Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind
but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal,
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

 

We are called to be in Christ. The fullness of our participation in Christ. Being worthy in heaven is not what we do.

We are in the time when Jesus was coming very briefly in Jerusalem. Jesus was journeying from Damascus to Jerusalem. Peter answered, Lord, your are Christ, the son of God. Right after this confession, Jesus predicted His Passion, told His disciples to take a cross and follow him. 2nd prediction about His Passion, that He will be handed over to chief priest, died on the cross, but will resurrect on the third day. 3rd prediction, James and John asked the right side of Him in his Kingdom, and Jesus asked if they know what it did mean. He mentioned about these 3 things, but the apostles had not asked Him about these. You need to ask, why. Was it not necessary for Messiah to suffer to enter His kingdom? There are many level of answers.

1 Jesus was doing it with the will of His Father. Praying in the Gethsemane.

2. Why did the Father asked Him to go on the cross?
John 3, 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
Galatians 2:20 I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.

In the end, cross becomes sign of dilemma.

Hebrews 12,2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.

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