Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/148

 Jesus in the holy sacrament mystically killed and offered in sacrifice on the altar; let us eat and rejoice. But why, divine Father, so much joy at the return of so ungrateful a child? Because, answered the Father, this my son was dead, and he is come to life again; he was lost, and I have found him. 8. This tenderness of Jesus Christ was experienced by the sinful woman (according to St. Gregory, Mary Magdalene) who cast herself at the feet of Jesus, and washed them with her tears. (Luke vii. 47 and 50.) The Lord, turning to her with sweetness, consoled her by saying: "Thy sins are forgiven ;... thy faith hath made thee safe; go in peace." (Luke vii. 48 and 50.) Child, thy sins are pardoned; thy confidence in me has saved thee; go in peace. It was also felt by the man who was sick for thirty- eight years, and who was infirm, both in body and soul. The Lord cured his malady, and pardoned his sins. "Behold," says Jesus to him, ”thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee." (John v. 14.) The tenderness of the Redeemer was also felt by the leper who said to Jesus Christ: ”Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." (Matt. viii. 2.) Jesus answered: "I will: be thou made clean" (v. 3). As if he said: Yes; I will that thou be made clean; for I have come down from heaven for the purpose of consoling all: be healed, then, according to thy desire. ”And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed." 9. We have also a proof of the tender compassion of the Son of God for sinners, in his conduct towards the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and pharisees brought her before him, and said: ”This woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses, in the law, commands us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou ?" (John viii. 4 and 5.) And this they did, as St. John says, tempting him. They intended to accuse him of transgressing the law of Moses, if he said that she ought to be liberated; and they expected to destroy his character for meekness, if he said that she should be stoned. “Si dicat lapidandam," says St. Augustine, ”famam perdet mansuetudinis; sin dimmitteudam, transgressæ legis accusabitur." (Tract, xxxiii. in Joan.)