[Hey, Church fans! I’m back! This week there are actually two homilies for your enjoyment. Here is the text from the C cycle readings (the woman caught in adultery) , but we also had the A cycle readings for the Third Scrutiny. (The raising of Lazarus.) The Vid is below. The Lazarus homily is on the next post.]
Next to Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water, the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery is one of my favorites. What’s going on?
First, when they bring the woman before Jesus, we know the scribes and the Pharisees are not genuine in their moral indignation. How do we know this? Well, it usually takes two parties to commit adultery. Where is the guy?!
Rather, they are simply trying to trap Jesus. If he says they should stone her, then they can condemn him to the Roman authorities since that would have been illegal. If he says they should not stone her, then they can denounce him as unfaithful to the Law of Moses. Jesus is smarter than that.
So what was he writing on the ground? Some of the Church fathers speculated that he was writing that passage of the Law that they were invoking. Others that he was writing the sins of the scribes and the Pharisees. That’s my favorite, but the sacred text just doesn’t say.
His answer to let the one without sin cast the first stone is particularly shrewd. Defeated, they all went away, one by one. Who of us is without sin?
But by the same token who of us is beyond the mercy of God? We could learn much by how Jesus treats the woman. Her guilt is not in question. Nor does he make light of the seriousness of her offense.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jesus is the only one present who actually could throw a stone at her. He is the one who could condemn her. But that is not what Jesus is about. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. None of us is without sin, but not one of us is beyond the mercy of God. All too often we are quick to condemn and slow to give mercy. Looking at what Jesus did, should we rather not be slow to condemn and quick to give mercy? In doing so, we truly join Christ in his salvific mission for the world, or at least that little part of the world in which we find ourselves.