He got all tangled up in the leash and bumped his nose and I (said), "Are you happy now?" It's an expression that I know, when I've used it, is kind of hauteur, like I'm in a superior position and I've warned you and warned you about this or that and now there is a calamity, big or small, and.... "Are you happy now?"

Our Lord uses that word "now" in the Gospel today. "From NOW on, don't sin any more." Don't be messing up your relationship with God and other human beings the way you have been doing. NOW, don't sin any more. It's a wonderful Gospel, isn't it? Beautiful, I mean... First of all, Our Lord's enemies thought they got Him, they snagged Him, because if He said, "Yes, stone her," they could have said, "Wait a minute. The Romans are in charge of this province and the Romans say that we're not allowed to execute anybody. So we're going to report you to the Romans. They have cornered the market on killing people." And if Our Lord then said, "Don't stone her," they'd say, "Aha! Breaking the Law of Moses! You wimp!" Either way, He would have, they thought, lost..... And He writes on the ground. It's the only time we have any record of Our Lord writing anything, and the wind blew it away.

So, I'd like to use that word from the phrase, "Are you happy NOW?" and Our Lord using it, "NOW don't go on sinning," and use it as an acronym because it's the only way I know how to remember anything. N....O....W... (N for "neighbor," O for "oneself," and W for "warranty.") about forgiveness, forgiveness of neighbors, forgiveness of yourself, and there's a warranty connected to forgiveness.

The neighbor - You know, the Bible, by "neighbor," means other people. And I often wish that.... (You know, sometimes we've been hurt. People don't throw stones at us, but they project pebbles often that hurt and cut, little pebbles.) And I have often wished that we could see sometimes, a family could see, a video of how each member of the family was hit by pebbles during the day.

Nobody knows about what's happened to the others and they sit down to supper. This actually happened, forty years ago. But the father reconstructed this a couple of days after it happened, about forgiving and wanting to get revenge, and then taking it out on people you love because you dare not take out revenge on, for example, a boss. Anyhow, they're sitting down to supper and the father was insulted by his boss that day on the job in front of other workers, and he's still feeling that pebble, that pain. But he hasn't talked about it. And the mother has been flooded... The washing machine flooded the laundry room. And the whole day has been frustrating for her. The teenage daughter, who is a junior,(This is a week before the junior prom.) was informed by her boyfriend, "I'm not going to no prom." And the boy, who is a freshman in high school, has just not made the track team. And they are all sitting there, feeling various wounds, and not forgiving the people who have hurt them, but together... And all of a sudden, the father says, "Will you stop playing with those lima beans. You're a freshman in high school. You're like a kid!" And the kid is so hurting anyhow, he throws down his fork, at which point the teenage girl rises and rushes to her room, in a flood of tears.... SLAM! The dog hides under the piano and the mother puts down her fork, and sobbing in frustration, says to him, "Are you happy now?" Hard to forgive people who have hurt us. And sometimes we take it out on the people who love us the most.

I often wonder, Our Lady.... You know, the three years where Our Lord was making... First he was popular but then He was getting in big trouble, like today. Can you just see some of Our Lady's neighbors, KNOCK! KNOCK! "Mary, did you hear what happened today, what your son did in the temple today?" I wonder how often Mary had to grit her teeth to forgive her neighbors. Being Our Lady, of course, she did. But, not easy!

Neighbors, forgiving them, other people, forgiving... Oh!.. oneself! That's not just some modern glitch: "I've got to forgive myself." It's very biblical. You've got to forgive yourself. I've repented. God's forgiven me. Let it go! For six years, I used to hear people say in confession in New York, "Oh! I did something so wrong and stupid years ago and I know God's punishing me now." Where is that in the Bible? Where is that in the Gospel? Good people suffering, blaming themselves. First of all, Our Lord doesn't use the euphemism with the lady, who's standing there and... Notice! She didn't split. You know, the guy took off, clutching the sheet, right through the window, when these others climbed into the room. But the lady (She's holding something, a towel, I hope.), she doesn't split. She stays there. She could have run away when she knew she was not going to be bombarded with boulders. She stands there, and Christ speaks to her. And she answers, with great respect. Anyhow, Our Lord doesn't use any euphemisms with her. He does not say, "Madam, clearly you are suffering some kind of moral vacuity biochemical disfunction with regard to physiological relationships with the opposite sex in an extramarital.... I suggest intensive psychotherapy for several years..." How refreshing for Him and her to say, "Sin. Don't mess up anymore. Don't mess up your friendship with God and other human beings. Don't sin anymore NOW."

Now, I've got to tell this one! I've got to tell it. This is true. Again, 1958.... Forgive the fact it's personal. In 1958, talking "Oh! Forgive oneself." There was big trouble at my house. I have a kid brother and a father. That's it. No relatives. Mom died when we were little kids. I get a phone call in '58 at the seminary, "Come home. A big trouble!" My heart sank. Here we go.... And you could only get permission to go home for a funeral. So to go home for trouble was a big deal. I got one day to go home. Big trouble. And at the end of the day, I announced, "Well, I've got to go back to the seminary now to continue my studies for the priesthood." I couldn't wait to scuttle back to safety and security, and leave all the trouble and the anguish and the nerves behind. Couldn't wait!

Two days later, I had to go home (Even I couldn't run away anymore.) and face the trouble, which I didn't want to. And it was Lent. I'll never forget. It was Lent of '58, and just before Easter Sunday I went to confession. And I confessed the cowardice and the desertion of my own family. And the priest, nice, kind Franciscan said, "Go in peace." Couple of days later, after Easter Sunday, I'm gargling with Listerine in the bathroom, and I thought of what I had done and (Forgive me, I'll use the Biblical word.) I "spewed" the Listerine at the mirror reflection of myself. And I shouted at me, "You worthless..." And I used an expletive.

And then I heard Our Lord talking to me. I know you know what I mean. But it was so intense, I'll never for.... It was as if Christ were in the bathroom, with ferocious love, Christ, saying to me, "Stop that.... Stop that. You are not worthless. You've repented. I forgive you. Stop that." And then, almost, "That's demonic. That's real evil, hating yourself, despairing. Stop that." Years later, I'd wished He'd said something like, "Ah, Mike-y, you are a saint and a mystic!" But He didn't employ euphemisms with me, either. "Stop that. You are not worthless. I forgave you." Forgiving oneself is deeply Biblical and deeply Christ-like.

And the last one, W is "Warranty." I looked it up in the dictionary. And I asked a good friend. He said the same words. A warranty, about, in our case, forgiveness.... A warranty is a guarantee and assurance. As I forgive I am forgiven. We say it every day in the Our Father, every time you come to Mass. "Our Father Who art in....... Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." It doesn't say "...as we like them." It doesn't say "Invite them on a picnic. You're so charming. You broke my heart. Let's go on a picnic." It doesn't mean be a dishrag or a doormat. But it does mean forgive.

I told you this once before. I found it so hard to forgive this guy. An old dying priest said, "All right! Let me give you an example. If you owned all the water in the world and this jerk who hurt the family, this jerk comes and says, 'Give me a cup of water.' Would you?" And I said, "Let me think about it....." And I said, "Yes. I would." That's all that's asked in the Bible, a cup of cold water, in Christ's name.

Priest, young priest, classmate of mine, way back in 1960, it was his first big accident as a priest. And he was climbing in the ambulance with this guy who had been in a wreck. And the policeman said, "No. Don't get in the ambulance, Father. He's dead. No point in going to the hospital with him." But Jimmy climbed into the ambulance and kept whispering into this unconscious man's ear, "Lord, I forgive those who have sinned against me. Forgive my sins....Lord, I forgive those who have sinned against me. Forgive my sins...." over and over, to this ostensibly dead man. The dead man called up from St. Francis Hospital four days later. He said, "Father, I heard every word you said. Thank you." And Jimmy said to me, over the phone, "I didn't know what I was saying." And I said, "You were saying six years of moral theology." Forgive as we forgive others.

Let's go back and end up with the lady, clutching her towel, going back home. And her older sister has been saying to her for years, "Watch out. You're going to get in trouble." And the younger sister comes in, but the older sister doesn't know that Jesus has spoken to her younger sister. The older sister comes thundering in, "Are you happy now? I heard all about that shocking scene." And the younger sister rips up her appointment book and looks at the older sister, and says, "Am I happy now? Yeah...... I am."