Monday 5th Week of Lent
Monserrat
March 23, 2026
I. Journeying Backwards
A. On Saturday I was privileged to pray at Manresa,
and today I am honored to pray with you at here at the Abbey of Monserrat.
In a sense, I find myself tracing Ignatius of Loyola’s pilgrim steps backwards,
for he journeyed to Monserrat before he came to Manresa.
But it doesn’t matter. I’m not writing his biography,
only striving, with you, to absorb something of his spirituality.
B. What brought Ignatius to Monserrat?
Surely it was his warm and loving devotion to Our Lady –
before whose shrine he prayed for endless hours.
In those moments of prayer, he was led to make a confession of his sins.
It was not a casual confession
but a general confession of all the sins he had ever committed –
so exhaustive as to defy the imagination.
Over several days he wrote down his sins before confessing them.
C. This cathartic confession marked a new stage in his spiritual life.
When he was first converted at Pamplona –
while recovering from a wound he received in battle –
Ignatius had already begun to take stock of his life.
Here at Monserrat, he progressed to the point of striving
to place contritely before the Lord all his thoughts, words, and actions.
Like the great saints who preceded him,
Ignatius wanted his life to be an open book for the Lord to read,
with no secrets, no excuses, no compromises on his part.
With the maternal accompaniment of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Ignatius bared his soul before her Son who is judge of the living and the dead.
II. The Two Corrupt Men
A. How different was Ignatius from the two corrupt men (in today’s first reading)
who sought to have the innocent Susanna condemned
in order to cover up their wickedness.
They used their prestige to convince the people of her guilt,
and their prominence to hide their sinfulness.
It seems these foolish men forgot that God knows us as we truly are,
‘for man judges by appearances but God sees the heart.’
Fortunately, Daniel was on hand to speak for God.
It was he who unmasked the deception of those two wicked elders,
and ensured that they were condemned, not the innocent Susanna.
B. This event is included in the Bible and in our Lenten liturgy,
not to entertain us with a little ancient courtroom drama,
but to pierce our consciences, to cause us to examine our lives,
and, like Ignatius, to make a good unburdening confession of our sins –
not over three days perhaps, and not in writing perhaps –
but a good confession, nonetheless.
III. The Woman Caught in Adultery
A. Fast forward to the Gospel of John
where Jesus encounters a woman caught in adultery.
Unlike Susanna, this woman was not innocent.
But the Scribes and Pharisees were not interested in the fate of the woman,
or the injured husband whom they don’t even mention.
Their sole interest was finding fault with Jesus, trapping him –
and to that end they instrumentalized a publicly humiliated woman.
B. So the Scribes and Pharisees challenged Jesus:
‘The Law of Moses commands that she should be stoned for her offence.
What do you have to say about her?’
Thus did they seek to put the merciful Savior
on the wrong side of the Mosaic Law.
Knowing their evil intentions, Jesus did not enter into debate with them.
Instead, he bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
When the Scribes and Pharisees persisted in questioning him,
he straightened up and said, ‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone.’
With that, they left one by one, for none of them was without sin.
The accusers had become the accused.
C. Jesus and the woman now stood alone.
Unlike the Scribes and Pharisees who used her for their own purposes,
Jesus looks at the woman with love; he sees the depths of her soul.
She is not an object, not a pawn in a debate, but person made in God’s image,
a person with whom Jesus enters into a relationship.
“Where are they?” he asks. “Is there no one to condemn you?”
“No one, sir,” she answers, and Jesus says,
“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more!”
Here Jesus offers her the possibility of a new beginning,
a life of peace with God, with herself, and with others.
IV. Ignatius and Us
A. In making his confession here at Monserrat,
Ignatius was coming to understand
both the rectitude of God’s justice and the depth of his mercy.
In baring his soul, he rejected the foolish path
of trying to deceive God and others.
With a contrite heart, he encountered the Lord in the depth of his merciful love.
In confessing his sins so thoroughly, Ignatius began to understand
that what was going on in his heart and soul mattered to God,
that he mattered to God, that he was precious in God’s eyes.
In the experience of God’s mercy, he also heard God’s call to holiness,
and to some heroic form of service to Christ and his Church.
Later on, at Manresa, he would experience doubts and scruples
but this was God’s way of teaching Ignatius
how to discern the movements of his soul,
how to tell what was from God, what was from the devil,
and what was merely from disordered affections.
Only in this way would his soul be readied
to be flooded by light from on high, an interior light,
that came from God’s Triune beauty and glory.
B. Not all of us are called to heroic discipleship like Ignatius,
but each of us is called to holiness
and to some work God that God has entrusted to no one else.
In these waning days of Lent, let us ask for the grace to know
how best to examine our consciences,
how best to discern the ways God is at work in us and in the events of our lives,
and then rediscover the cleansing power of the Sacrament of Penance.
For it is only when we have invited the Lord to reveal us to ourselves
that we are flooded with light from on high,
the glory of God’s merciful love flowing from the wounds of Christ Jesus,
who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God forever and ever! Amen!
Our Lady of Monserrat, pray for us!