misera et misericordia - Saturday 4th week Lent

When Jesus straightened up there was no one left except just the two of them, the adulterous woman and Jesus.  St. Augustine commenting on this passage said, only two are left standing misera et misericordia – duha na lang ang nabilin nga nagatindog, ang makaluluoy kag ang maluloy-on, the miserable and the merciful, misery and mercy.

This passage has a curious history because it cannot be found in many ancient bibles, and if it is found, it is found elsewhere, like in another gospel or in another chapter.  It is said that there were attempts to remove the passage and when people wanted to put it back again, they do not know where to place it?  So why would people want this removed?  Because there are some who think that the gospel passage goes easy with sinners, and that the gospel passage is soft on justice.  Basi magdumdum ang iban nga pirme lang excuse, pirme lang patawad, pirme ok ok lang.

But the emphasis as St. Augustine’s commentary implies, is our standing before God, who we are before God – not that we are finding excuses for our faults and escaping accountability for our sins, but that like the sinful woman caught in adultery we are truly and in fact misera, nevertheless Jesus is misericordia; we stand before God miserable, nevertheless God stands before us as merciful; we are misery but Jesus is mercy.   This is what we go through each time we go to confessions, where misera stands before misercordia, kon sa diin ang kaluluoy nagatindog sa atubangan sang maluloy-on

Two days before she passed away my mother asked me to hear her confessions just before we celebrated what would be her final mass here on earth.  It is a consolation that she leaves this world not bragging about the good that she did, not extolling her virtues, but by professing and confessing that she is truly and in fact misera.  Now we pray that she will come face to face with misericordia, with mercy himself.