Readings of the Day
REFLECT:
In today’s Gospel (John 8:1-11), we hear the story of the woman caught in adultery. First of all, think of her shame – being caught in the very act! And brought before the biggest religious leaders of the day. What greater humiliation can one think of for a woman in that culture, and what greater fear – the law commanding her to be killed, stoned to death! Can we perceive the drama of the moment?

Yet unknowingly to them, she is brought before the King of the Universe, God incarnate. What will he do? Will he allow them to stone the woman to death? Or will he break His own Law? 

There is a holy silence here, a merciful silence. 

“Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.”

I always wondered what Jesus was writing on the ground. The most interesting take I have heard is from St. Jerome. He says that Jesus was writing on the ground the sins of the religious leaders, their mortal sins, their worst sins.

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Thus Jesus, brilliantly and divinely, neither denies the law nor has the woman stoned, but discreetly reveals the accusers’ own sins to their shame. As the religious leaders point their finger at the woman, three fingers point back at them. And then the same divine finger that wrote the Law on the stone tablets of Moses is now revealing their personal violations of that same Law in the sandy ground. The religious leaders are spiritually struck with the weight of their own sins, which they cannot hide from God. They walk away, spiritually humbled.

The One without a trace of sin, who can condemn her, does not, but says – “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

He mercifully sets her free, yet free to follow His commandments anew. 

PRAY:
Lord, thank you for your mercy. In the light of your presence, none of my sins are hidden from you. Yet you love me. And yet this love does not want to leave me in this same sorry state. Lead me in the path of your commands more and more into your abundant goodness.

ACT:
This Sunday, put yourself in the shoes of the woman caught in grave sin. Receive the mercy of Jesus’s gaze and the encouragement to follow His commandments anew (perhaps by going to Confession, or making a general confession if that would be helpful to you). What commandments do you have a hard time believing you can follow? Trust that God doesn’t give any commands that He will not empower you to follow if you lean on Him (and rely on the grace of the Christian community too).