Men’s Sacred Heart fellowship today, and truly a blessing it is. The insight struck penetratingly that it is not the profoundness that is significant. New answers, life changing decrees, are not why I am attending. I do not need to be there, yet it behooves me to participate. The opening comprised of the singing of three hymns is actually enough, setting the tone of camaraderie and joy. Fellowship is healing. It is fun to sing together as a group of men. In number, I believe there were fifteen men today. We read the coming scriptural readings for Sunday’s Mass. In the first reading from Isiah words arose relevant: I am doing something new. God is doing something new, something never done before through His Son Jesus Christ. Us men gathering is nothing new, yet it is relevant. After the readings, we listened to a Bishop Barron homily on the readings. The Gospel reading was the adulterous woman dragged before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. Bishop Barron expressed the poignant insight, defining the brutality of the religious authorities in applying God’s laws. There is a lack of love in their exercising of the commandments of God. Bishop Barron humorously points out the woman was caught in the very act of adultery. What in the world were these men doing to catch her in the act? Then they drag her to Jesus, humiliating and degrading the sinner. They do not want to heal, nor are they concerned for her soul. Even further, they desire to use the law to corner Jesus in a theological error. The men are treacherous and conniving in their perceived service to God. We must not judge them, concentrating upon their short-sighted behavior. Rather, we must see ourselves in the men. The woman is brought forth spiritually naked, brutalized in spirit, brought forth as nothing more than a means to a self-serving deceiving end. The sinner, a wounded broken soul, is stripped of all dignity, accused and accosted by those determined to bring about the laws of God. Jesus, doing something new, reaches into the heart, extending love and understanding. He heals the woman, bestowing grace. He forgives the woman. In the process, teaching those who would raise themselves above their brothers and sisters something new. There is something new under the sun and that something new is Jesus, the Savior and Son of God. Even today, over two thousand years after His birth, Christ is something new. I am grateful for the fellowship shared at Sacred Heart. I was scheduled for a bedside vigil this morning and afternoon, however a message waited for me after the men’s meeting. The patient passed away. I will recognize the fact as a sign, interpreting a calling to prayer at St Paul Shrine. It has been weeks since I have been able to attend.

Thus says the LORD,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,a powerful army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
for my chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they might announce my praise.