The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to pause with Jesus and consider how we might recover from our disposition to act unlovingly and accept the help of the Spirit to live more in accord with the Love of God.
Pause and Reflect
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah declares promises of Redemption and Restoration to the Babylonian exiles.
* [43:18] Remember not: God’s new act of delivering Israel from the Babylonian captivity is presented as so great a marvel as to eclipse even the memory of the exodus from Egypt. This comparison of the return from Babylon to the exodus from Egypt recurs throughout Second Isaiah (cf. 41:17–20; 43:18–21; 48:20–21; 49:8–13; 51:9–11).1
Psalm 126 is a plea for justice and a declaration of Righteousness.
* [Psalm 126] A lament probably sung shortly after Israel’s return from exile. The people rejoice that they are in Zion (Ps 126:1–3) but mere presence in the holy city is not enough; they must pray for the prosperity and the fertility of the land (Ps 126:4). The last verses are probably an oracle of promise: the painful work of sowing will be crowned with life (Ps 126:5–6).2
In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul is pressing towards the goal of righteousness from God.
* [3:12–16] To be taken possession of by Christ does not mean that one has already arrived at perfect spiritual maturity. Paul and the Philippians instead press on, trusting in God. * [3:12] Attained perfect maturity: possibly an echo of the concept in the mystery religions of being an initiate, admitted to divine secrets.3
In the Gospel of John, Jesus deals with a woman caught in adultery.
* [8:5] Lv 20:10 and Dt 22:22 mention only death, but Dt 22:23–24 prescribes stoning for a betrothed virgin. * [8:6] Cf. Jer 17:13 (RSV): “Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water”; cf. Jn 7:38. * [8:7] The first stones were to be thrown by the witnesses (Dt 17:7).4
Vivian Amu comments that it is difficult to not stir up anxieties about past failings or hurts. It is difficult to strain forward while the wind of regret and fear is right in our faces forcing us to frequently take steps backwards or stand still in terror. It is difficult to move towards the upward calling of loving ourselves and others.
When Jesus responded to the scribes and the Pharisees who brought him the woman who had been caught in adultery, he never proclaimed the woman’s innocence, nor did he pass judgment. Jesus called their attention to her humanity and theirs. Jesus chose mercy over judgment. Jesus bent down and away from the height of judgment, standardized punishment, chastisement, and condemnation. Jesus leaned into her humanity, her imperfection, and the impermanence of the path she had taken as he wrote on an impermanent ground that holds no one's secrets for long. We could maybe lean into the humanity of those who have hurt us or disappointed us. We could maybe lean into our own humanity and realize we are forgivable and loveable. We could maybe trust in the Lord God, who doesn't condemn us, who puts water in the desert of our soul, who does great things for us and lifts us up. Lord, please lift us up from sin and help us lean forward into a new life with you. Amen5
Don Schwager quotes “A humble examination,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"In line with our usual human way of doing things, we can understand that the reason why the Lord might wish to bend before his unprincipled tempters and to write on the ground was that by directing his look elsewhere he might give them the freedom to go away. He foresaw that as they had been astounded by his answer, they would be more inclined to depart quickly than to ask him more questions… Figuratively speaking, the fact that both before and after he gave his opinion he bent and wrote on the ground admonishes us that both before we rebuke a sinning neighbor and after we have rendered to him the ministry of due correction, we should subject ourselves to a suitably humble examination, lest perhaps we be entangled in the same things that we censure in [our neighbors] or in any other sort of misdeeds. For it often comes about, for example, that people who publicly judge a murderer to be a sinner may not perceive the worse evil of the hatred with which they themselves despoil someone in secret. People who bring an accusation against a fornicator may ignore the plague of the pride with which they congratulate themselves for their own chastity. People who condemn a drunkard may not see the venom of envy with which they themselves are eaten away. In dangers of this sort, what saving remedy is left for us except that, when we look at some other sinner, we immediately bend down - that is, we humbly observe how we would be cast down by our frail condition if divine benevolence did not keep us from falling? Let us write with a finger on the ground - that is, let us meticulously ponder with discrimination whether we can say with blessed Job, 'For our heart does not censure us in all our life' (Job 27:6), and let us painstakingly remember that if our heart censures us, God is greater than our heart and he knows all things." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.25)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 8:1-11 comments that Jesus wasn’t just forgiving the woman. He was—as Isaiah describes in our first reading—making a way for her through the wasteland of her sin and offering her strength and restoration (Isaiah 43:19).
So look for an opportunity to go to Confession before Easter. Trust that the One who said, “Let there be light” is ready to speak words of healing and strength into your woundedness and weakness (Genesis 1:3). As the priest prays that God would bring you “pardon and peace,” know that Jesus never tires of speaking these words to you. Every time you come to him, you can be strengthened and receive the grace you need to begin again. “Jesus, give me the grace to go and sin no more.”7
There were some technical difficulties in Friar Jude Winkler’s commentary at publication time.
Jack Mahoney SJ, Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Theology in the University of London, asks when the scribes and Pharisees presented Jesus with the woman caught committing adultery, how did his reaction epitomise the forgiveness of God that Luke has focused on in the Lenten gospels?
As for the unfortunate woman before him, he was not so much concerned about her allegedly criminal action in infringing the law and legally meriting death – the ploy of his enemies – as about the sinfulness of her behaviour in devaluing her marriage and her husband, behaviour that Jesus now forgave, letting her go with the injunction that she should not repeat her adultery. A few verses later in this chapter of John, Jesus points out to his enemies, ‘I judge no one’ (Jn 8:15), a claim which may have helped to influence the insertion of this episode here in John’s Gospel. In itself the story bears no indication of when in Jesus’s public life the event it describes took place, although placing it here in John (and equivalently in Luke) dates it as happening in the period just before Jesus’s arrest. It is attractive, however, to think that the event may have actually occurred earlier in Jesus’s public life, and that the forgiven adulteress may well have become one of the many devoted women who, according to Luke, accompanied and supported Jesus and his apostles (Lk 8:2-3), and were also later present on Calvary even at his death (23:49).8
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, preaches a homily on the collective nature of salvation and sin.
As Jesus’ ministry begins, John calls him the “Lamb of God.” That’s not what history expected. We expected a Lion of God—an almighty, omnipotent God who solved all problems. Instead, the Lamb of God is the one who is vulnerable and powerless, who is taken and absorbed into whatever history unfolds. That’s what is meant by the Lamb of God who forgives the “sin” of the world. Notice, it isn’t “sins,” as in many. It’s singular, “sin.” Just as salvation is one collective reality, so too is evil. It’s always collective. God forgives it by becoming incarnate. If God becomes a human being, then it’s good to be human! Incarnation is already redemption. Similarly, we are all complicit. We’re all cooperative in the stupidity and evil of human history. No one can stand up and say, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” As Paul says so clearly: “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23), so we all bear the burden of sin. It’s a waste of God’s time—and our own—to try to prove who is more worthy, more holy, more blameless. Stop trying to be better than someone else! Just forget it! All that does is make us egocentric.9
We imagine ourselves in the place of the woman in the Gospel as we receive Jesus love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness and seek guidance from the Spirit to pay it forward to others on our journey.
References
