6 April 2025 -- 5th Sunday in Lent "C"
Is 43:16-21; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11
Homily
"If your heart accuses you, God is greater than your heart and knows everything" -- When John wrote this in one of his Letters, he was perhaps thinking of the scene he recounts in today's Gospel.
The climax of the story is when Jesus and the woman find themselves alone, standing together, looking each other in the face, after everyone else has gone. No one can be in the presence of sin without being troubled, no doubt because the sin of the other reminds us of our own. Only God can look upon the sinner with serenity, and only God can make the sinner stand up and retain all his dignity, despite his sin.
Jesus was not interested in sin, but in the sinner. His mercy towards sinners, His compassion and the serenity He showed when in their presence surprised and even scandalized the Pharisees. It was something they could not understand. And what was the reason for this? -- It was that they were preoccupied with sin and not with the sinner. They put people into categories and treated them accordingly. The Law of Moses ordered them to stone ‘those women’, they told Jesus. The woman they brought to Jesus was not for them a person with a name and a story. She was simply ‘one of those women’. Don't we often do the same thing, in our personal lives as well as in our collective situations? -- Such and such a man is ‘that type of person with whom it is not possible to enter into dialogue’; such and such a country belongs to a type of country that must be invaded and punished; such and such a head of state belongs to a type of criminal that must be overthrown. For Jesus, no one belongs to a category. Everyone is unique and must be received, accepted and loved as a unique person.
The Pharisees invite Jesus to act as judge in the case they present to Him. Jesus bends down and begins to draw signs on the ground, no doubt simply to show them that He is not interested in their court case. When they insisted, He simply quoted a passage from the Law, but changed it - a seemingly slight change, but one with far-reaching meaning and consequences. According to the Law, the witness to a crime had to throw the first stone when stoning a criminal. Jesus said: ‘Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone’. With this change, Jesus raises the problem to a completely different level. He brings the accusers back to their own conscience. They all leave, one by one, acknowledging that they too are sinners. Jesus is full of kindness even towards them. He does not take pleasure in His victory over them. On the contrary, He bends down again, to give them the opportunity to leave without losing face, without being humiliated.
And when they have all gone, Jesus stands up, looks at the woman before Him, and speaks to her. His words are simple: "Has no one condemned you? -- I don't condemn you either. Go and sin no more".
There are many lessons for us in this story. The first is not to judge or condemn anyone. And then there is a lesson in lucidity. Everyone in this story is lucid: even the Pharisees are aware of their own sins and leave. The woman makes no attempt to deny or justify her sin. Jesus knows all hearts. And the third lesson, undoubtedly the most important, is a lesson about God's attitude towards us sinners.
- It is not a humiliating or contemptuous attitude.
- It is not the attitude of a judge (He neither judges nor condemns).
- He is not interested in sin. Jesus does not explicitly forgive the woman's sin. He doesn't even mention it. He is only interested in her future. ‘Go and sin no more’. He does not give her a long list of recommendations and warnings. He leaves it entirely up to her to organize her own life. He does not warn her against a particular sin; He is more demanding: He reminds her of the importance of not sinning at all.
Such an attitude on the part of Jesus was not only scandalous in the eyes of the Pharisees, it was disturbing even for the early Church. Although this account has all the hallmarks of authenticity, it has been excluded from the canonical Gospels. It does not appear in the three Synoptic Gospels, and is found only in a few manuscripts of the Gospel of John. It is easy to understand that this scene was disturbing, because mercy and compassion are neither natural nor easy for human beings. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit saw to it that this story was preserved for us.
This story also reminds us that during this Lenten season, God wants us to look forward to the joy of the Resurrection, and that instead of dwelling on our past sins, we should take firm steps towards a new life without sin.
Armand Veilleux