Alberic Jacovone OSB
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YEAR C
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
Is 43,16-21; Phil 3,8-14; Jn 8,1-11
No right to play judge & jury
Those
who dwell in glass houses, must never cast stones, says the proverb. As we are on our journey
to Easter, we move from last Sunday’s reflection about a merciful father to
the powerful story of a merciful judgment. We ask: Why are we so condemnatory? We are all invited to trust in God’s mercy & accept the teaching
of Jesus, who came not to condemn the world but to save it, & said to the
adulteress: Neither do I condemn you. The story is told as a ‘catch 22’, to trap & trick Jesus in his
own words. The Pharisees had set both crime & punishment that fitted it,
since the victim had been ‘caught in the act’. Jesus was asked to be judge
& jury: if he condoned the crime & spared her he would transgress Jewish
Law (Torah) which imposed killing by stoning for such a crime (Num 5,13; Deut
22,23+). If He condemned the woman, he’d offend Roman Law, to which all
capital punishments were reserved. Today, we are asked to own the woman’s
feelings: how afraid she was for her life, & how ruthlessly dragged along.
Yet she did not matter, since she was an excuse to trap & trick Jesus in his
own teaching. Jesus dealt first with his accusers: who were determined to
destroy Jesus, whether he condemned or condoned the woman for her adultery. But
as they couldn’t trap or trick him they left in shame. Next, Jesus turned to
the woman & to her feelings saying: has anyone condemned you? I do neither
condemn nor condone you. God loves you as you are & invites you to
re-habilitate your life, by re-orienting it towards Him. To the woman & to
us Jesus proposes not 2 but 3 options: God neither condemns nor condones, as
long as we live, He offers his “way”: an opportunity to re-habilitate
ourselves, leave the past behind & start again.
We
have no right to condemn. It
is tragic to realize that for most of our life, we are like the condemning
Pharisees. The holier we think we are, the more we are like them. Jesus’
teaching is crystal clear: only God is judge of all - as for us, we know very
well how often we have been unfaithful to God & are in need of his
forgiveness. So we would be hypo-critical if we claimed to be self-righteous. We
can never assume the right of
condemning anyone. The fact is that we too are broken - wounded; at risk &
in need of God’s mercy. We too live in glass houses & must never cast
stones. Lesson: It’s wrong to find
faults in others - to put them down - to play judge & jury - to be hasty in
assessing & condemning. Let’s all be: open to God’s merciful love -
ready to give & receive pardon - ready to welcome, include, excuse &
support the weak & lost, just as God is with each of us. Let’s all enjoy
the fact that God is unbelievably rich in mercy; & if God loves &
accepts us unconditionally as we are, we must imitate Him in being accepting,
supporting & caring. In our relationship with God, we all need constant
re-conversion, re-habilitation, re-orientation: & Lent is the time to attend
to this. In the language of the Bible, the word ‘adultery’ covers every
wrong-doing against God, since when we sin, it’s as if we betray God & are
unfaithful to Him. So adultery is not only an act of infidelity between husband
& wife, but also & importantly, it’s used to describe -in metaphoric
sense- any treason or betrayal between God & us: in this sense, even
apostasy is an adultery against God who is the ever faithful bridegroom, lover
& husband; while we are the bride & when we sin, we get seduced -like
cheap harlots on heat- by all sorts of silly & empty gods, like the gods of
power, pleasure, wealth etc. Remember:
today, we are that woman: It is to us that Jesus says: has anyone condemned
you?... Neither do I condemn you.
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