Sunday, March 28, 2004
5th Sunday of Lent

1st Reading: Is 43:16-21

Thus says Yahweh, who opened a way through the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who brought down chariots and horses,
a whole army of them, and there they lay, never to rise again, snuffed out like a wick.

But do not dwell on the past, or remember the things of old.
Look, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth. Do you not see? I am opening up a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The beasts of the land will honor me, jackals and ostriches, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert that my chosen people may drink.

I have formed this people for myself; they will proclaim my praise.

2nd Reading: Phil 3:8-14

Everything seems to me as nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have let everything fall away and I now consider all as garbage, if instead I may gain Christ. May I be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but with the righteousness that God gives to those who believe.

May I know him and experience the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, and attain through this, God willing, the resurrection from the dead!

I do not believe I have already reached the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect, but I press on till I conquer Christ Jesus, as I have already been conquered by him. No, brothers and sisters, I do not claim to have claimed the prize yet. I say only this: forgetting what is behind me, I race forward and run towards the goal, my eyes on the prize to which God has called us from above in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: Jn 8:1-11 (Listen to MP3 - Forgives the Adulteress)

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak Jesus appeared in the Temple again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them.

Then the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone. "Master," they said, "this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now the Law of Moses orders that such women be stoned to death; but you, what do you say?" They said this to test Jesus, in order to have some charge against him.

Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. And as they continued to ask him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who has no sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And he bent down again, writing on the ground.

As a result of these words, they went away, one by one, starting with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Then Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go away and don't sin again."

Commentary

LAST Sunday we had the story of the prodigal son, with its theme of God's loving mercy. Today we see it being worked out in reality.

Everything was clear until Jesus started: the woman was a sinner, her accusers could remain just accusers. It had the clarity of logic, and it was meant to trap him. Everyone knows, of course, that this clarity is deceptive: no one is squeaky clean ("All have sinned" Rom 3:23). So they have to appeal to the clarity of a written law. The gowns and wigs that lawyers wear in court (in some countries) enable them to some degree to be uninvolved at the personal level. I'm sure it's a necessary insulation in their case; but in this case the accusers wanted to be very personal indeed, using the law only as a noose.

If Jesus said, "No, she must not be put to death!" they could accuse him of breaking the Law; and if he said, "The Law has to be obeyed," his teaching about the mercy of God (for example, his story of the prodigal son) would only be fine words. It was a trap.

The brilliant way in which he sprang their trap on themselves makes this one of the world's great stories. It shows that mercy isn't the sentimentality of soft-minded people, but a power that goes straight to the heart of the matter-and to the human heart.

Read also Sundays Into Silence: You Must Feel Good to Become Good

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