Taking Responsibility
By Fr. Jim McDougall

We are now into our Fifth Week of Lent. If you have "fallen off the wagon" in your Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, it's not to late to start again and make this Lent a time of renewal for you. Of course, Lenten practices can be empty unless they lead to genuine spiritual growth and change.

+ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (John 8:1-11)

Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives. 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."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection: One Friday night in January two years ago, five teenage girls at Danville High School in Vermont became adults, and they did so with class. The five teenagers were members of the Danville High basketball team -- four of them were starters. The gym was packed just prior to the start of the game. But the five weren't in uniform to play that night and would not be for the rest of the season. They were there to explain why they had been kicked off the team. They were there to own up to a serious infraction of team rules. They were there to support their coach's decision to take them off the team. They were there to let the town know there was a problem in their community that needs to be addressed. And they did so with contrition and humility rather than defensiveness.

During the Christmas holidays, the girls had gone to a New Year's Eve party where alcohol was served -- and, as many kids have done through time, all five players drank. Every member of the team knew the coach's no-tolerance rule on drugs and alcohol. When classes resumed, the rumor mill churned with stories about the party. Rather than let the stories run their course, the five decided to go to the coach with the full story.

The coach said she had to stick to her policy. And the players -- two juniors and three seniors -- agreed. That Friday night in the gym was part of their public support of the coach's decision.

One of the seniors told their teammates, friends, classmates and parents at the game that night: "We hope you will understand that we are not bad kids. We made a mistake…What we did was definitely not worth it. We hope this event will make everyone open their eyes and realize that there is a big drug and alcohol problem in our community. And if you work with us to try and solve this problem, you will help us feel that we have not been thrown off our basketball team for nothing."

The Danville High School girls basketball team might not have won another game that year, but they learned something about personal responsibility, about the effect of an individual's actions on others, about integrity that will serve them well throughout life. True conversion begins by taking ownership of our mistakes and shortcomings and the impact they have on those around us. We cannot take on the demons of the world until we confront the demons in our own hearts; we cannot pass sentence on others until we judge our own lives; we cannot change what is beyond us until we change what is within us; we cannot lift up the fallen until we realize that we, too, have fallen; we cannot raise others to health and hope until we seek our own healing. May the Spirit of God inspire us with the same integrity, wisdom and maturity as displayed by these five young women.