By Msgr. Joseph P. Calise
Recently, I was searching through the channels on the television and came across a show called “Ridiculousness,” which brought back memories of a program from my childhood, “Candid Camera.”
Basically, the premise of the programs is to point out the oddity inherent in human nature. Sometimes, what comes very naturally is strange to an onlooker. Looking at the scene in today’s Gospel, there is an abundance of strange behaviors.
First, we have the facts. They are simple enough. The woman was caught in the act of adultery (why the one she was caught with is nowhere to be found is another story). Those who caught her were defenders of the law, a law that made it clear she should be stoned to death. They were prepared to carry out the sentence but realized they might also reap another benefit. They could trap the new preacher in town: They could put Jesus in the position where He would either have to renege on His message of mercy and acknowledge the law, or defy the law and suggest mercy. In either case, He would be trapped and the consistency of His preaching could be challenged.
So they go to Him and the strangeness begins. Jesus does not negate the law, but only qualifies who is able to carry out the sentence. He says, “Let the one among you without sin throw the first stone.”
Challenge and Invitation
Yet, he says it while writing on the ground, a posture and attitude that seemingly offers them little attention. Strangely, they not only throw no stones, but one by one they also drop the stones they held and walk away. Strangely, the woman caught does not take the opportunity to run away but stays and stands in front of Jesus. Acknowledging her sinfulness, she does not run from Him. Strangely, the One without sin does not throw a stone, even though they are now all lying at His feet. He offers not condemnation, but the challenge and invitation to sin no more.
I wonder what Jesus was writing on the ground. It seems as though that action is at the center of the reversal of behaviors. The judges cease to judge and the condemned finds a new freedom. Somehow, the Pharisees were confronted with their own sinfulness so that they could no longer cast their stones on another. Perhaps Jesus was writing the seven deadly sins – pride, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, envy and sloth – and reminding them that, although she was caught in the act, her sinfulness did not render them innocent. The sadness is that they walked away while she remained; she stayed long enough to hear forgiveness.
Caught or not, all of us can identify with human imperfection. Lent is certainly a good time to acknowledge our sinfulness. But we do not end there. We do not go to the sacrament of reconciliation to hear that we are sinners; we know that before we go. We go to confession to hear that our sins are forgiven and to receive the grace to sin no more.
In this Year of Mercy, we are challenged, challenged to put down the stones we so often throw at ourselves – and at one another – and to simply be still and hear God’s forgiving love.
Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Isaiah 43: 16-21
Psalm 126: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Philippians 3: 8-14
John 8:1-11
Msgr. Joseph P. Calise is the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, Williamsburg.