Reflection for Sunday 6th April, 2025

5th Sunday of Lent 

Mercy spurs us on to do our best (John 8:1-11)

We are only one week away from Palm (Passion) Sunday). Jesus has left Galilee and has gone with the apostles to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. For the Jewish leaders this was their opportunity to set a trap to get rid of him.

An opportunity arose when a woman was caught in the act of adultery. I have often been asked the obvious question. Where was the partner, the man? Maybe he just ran away. No, there was another reason why he was not charged. Their ancient laws (Leviticus 20:12) declared that people who committed adultery should be stoned to death, but this sentence was rarely carried out, only when it suited the leaders’ purpose. Because a woman was regarded as disposable chattel with no rights, many of their legal experts decreed that if a husband issued a writ of divorce, he was free to be married again, whereas if the woman remarried it was considered adultery.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory! Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart for I am all tenderness and compassion.

So, this woman was dragged before Jesus. They were setting a dilemma for Jesus. He was noted for sitting with sinners and outcasts, an action that scandalized the Pharisees. Now, if he said she should not be stoned they could claim he was not obeying the Law. But if he agreed that she should be stoned to death, his reputation for mercy and forgiveness would be destroyed, and he would be in trouble with the Roman authorities who forbade the Jews to condemn anybody to death.
There is a similar episode in Matthew 19:1-9 where the Pharisees try to trap Jesus on the issue of divorce. Jesus replied that the same law applied to the man as to the woman. “Anyone who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of an illicit marriage – and marries another, is guilty of adultery” (Matt 19:9). Jesus recognised the equality of women.

In today’s Second Reading, Saint Paul, who had once been a very strict, legalistic Pharisee arresting Christians, tells us of his absolute joy in coming to know and believe in Jesus Christ. Paul, then known as Saul, was alarmed by the increasing number of Christian converts who believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. But encountering the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus changed everything. Now he knew that perfection is not to be found in strict legalism but in knowing Jesus Christ. He called his former behaviour rubbish. “All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death” (Phil 3:10).

Harsh Legalism

Many of us can remember the harsh legalism of the confessional, especially in relation to sex. Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, wrote, “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy which spurs us on to do our best.”

Tap into your imagination

Now try to visualise the scene. The mob are shouting and clawing the earth for stones. Their leaders try to pin Jesus in the trap. “What have you to say?”
There he is at the butt of a pillar, taking the shade and playing like a child in the dust.
Was he writing their sins? Or engaging in a little act of distraction to divert attention from the woman’s embarrassment? Or maybe he was just playfully doodling a daydream?
Then he looks up and says, “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” This was the classic answer. Beginning with the eldest, one by one, they slink away, shamefaced.
When all others have gone, he looks up at the trembling woman. “Woman, has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir.”
“Neither do I condemn you, go away and don’t sin any more.”
Her accusers saw a sinner. Jesus saw someone who, if given encouragement, might yet be a saint!
The Lord's mercy spurs us on to do our best. (Pope Francis)
Wisely did King David say, “Let us rather fall into the hand of God, since his mercy is great, and not into the hands of men” (2 Sam 24:14).

Prayer

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart
for I am all tenderness and compassion.