[Isaiah 43 : 16-21 ;
Psalm 126 (125) : 1-6 ;
Philippians 3 : 8-14 ;
John 8 : 1-11]
Jesus had said, “Luke 6:36-38 – “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure that you give will be the measure you get back.”
Today Jesus applies this teaching of his in the case of the woman caught committing adultery.
First of all, Jesus tells the crowd, many of whom a holding a stone in their hands, “Let anyone among you who has never sinned be the first to throw a stone at her”. Here the Scribes and the Pharisees should get credit for honesty. After all, in the case of this woman, they could have behaved as if they were virtuous, and started throwing stones. Instead, when Jesus said, “Let anyone among you who has never sinned be the first to throw a stone at her”, they all dropped their stones and went away one by one, beginning with the elders.
As we get older, we must become wiser and realize that we too are weak beings, that we have made mistakes in life and that we are sinners and therefore, perhaps the oldest were the first to realize that they were also sinful people and dropped their stones to the ground. That encouraged the juniors to be honest and everybody went away, leaving Jesus alone with her.
The woman all alone with Jesus: “Mercy and misery face to face”, will say Saint Augustin.
Jesus asks, “No one has condemned you...?”
“No one, Lord.”
“Neither do I condemn you...”
Jesus forgives her, brushes aside her past, and opens a way to the future for her. Why does God forgive sinners? Only if the Sun gives light the flower can open. God forgives sinners so that they may change and blossom. We call this the sacrament of reconciliation which is an initiative on the part of God.
Jesus tells her, “Go, and sin no more!”
Jesus does not tell the woman, “Go in peace, you were right to enjoy life, do it again!” but, “Sin no more”, that is, “Stop hurting yourself, don’t ruin your life again for a few pleasurable moments”. Sin is condemned, but not the sinner. The sinner is rehabilitated. Sin has to be condemned, but only pardon can allow the sinner to advance in life.
We are all sinners, we all own our sins, maybe we will have to pay for it, but we are not just sinful persons. We are more than our sins. There is the English pop song that we are more than the sum of all our mistakes. We are also something else than our sins. And because of that, we can taste the joy of pardon, with Jesus.
We can imagine the thirst for pardon that this woman must have felt. If you have been a sinner, you will enjoy all the more this gospel. And in our turn, every time that we act like the Lord, we render to our neighbour the right to life that is his due and we make of our land a land of hope. Amen.
See Tiburtius Fernandez SMA, © Treasures of The Word, Homilies for Year C, St. Paul's, Bandra, Bombay, India, 2024, pp. 67-70.