Let You Who are Without Sin Cast the First Stone
One of the purposes of Lent is to recognize that sin does exist in the world and that we are sometimes guilty of sinning. This seems to be a wholly unacceptable position for many of us Americans and even many Catholics. The practice of becoming humble through reflection and prayer; through an examination of gifts received compared to gratitude for those gifts or better, an honest appraisal of how giving we are to others is against our “me first!” culture or seems antithetical to our goal of success, success, success! We all have been guilty of giving Jesus second place in our lives despite His Passion and sacrifice for us. Jesus did not need saving, we did.
In our gospel today we have the religious leaders of the time looking for fault with Jesus and posing what seemed a straight-forward question, “We have caught her in the very act of adultery”,( which carried with it the penalty of being stoned to death for the woman). Jesus is disgusted with them. Biblical scholars have come to an agreement what exactly Jesus was writing in the sand with his finger. It was the sins of the woman’s accusers, which embarrassed them so deeply that they simply walked away, one by one, as Jesus kept enumerating their sins. Then, when the last of them had gone, Jesus asks the woman what became of her accusers and she responds that they have all left. Then Jesus utters one of the most hope laden short sentences when he responds “Neither Do I accuse you. Go and sin no more.” Jesus exercised compassion to the terrified woman and saved her earthly life from religious zealots who were more interested in living to the letter of the law rather than the intent of the law.
According to the rules, she would have been stoned; according to God’s mercy for a repentant sinner, she was completely forgiven. Unequal situations sometimes exist, such as the woman being guilty, and the man going free. I believe because she had to confess her sin, suffer terrible embarrassment, and mostly because she made the resolution to sin no more, she had a better chance of going to heaven than the man she was sinning with, against whom there was no earthly charge. Which brings us to our conclusion, God loves a repentant sinner! To turn from the ways of the world is not easy, but can be done, particularly if we ask God’s help.
This weekend, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the co-patron of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In an interesting anecdote about St. Patrick, it was the night before his ordination to priesthood and he was feeling terrible about an incident that he had rationalized and that he thought would separate him from God. It seems St. Patrick, as a youth who could easily find trouble, was troubled that he had gotten into a fight and in the ensuing melee, had killed his adversary, not intentionally, but he was dead nonetheless. St. Patrick sought out his spiritual director and made a full confession of the event and received absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. With integrity of heart, he went on to ordination , to become a famous monk and eventually Bishop of Ireland, but always with a heart close to God. Now this fallen man who loved God so deeply that he realized that there would be no secrets between them is a famous saint of our Church. I am not recommending murder and then contrition. What I am recommending is that we all stand in need of the Sacrifice of Calvary and God’s forgiveness for our non-charitable actions. Our act of commission/ omission might seem small or it might be larger. Regardless, we all stand in need of Jesus’ mercy. Our first step towards healing is to acknowledge, as did St. Patrick, that we need healing and then just ask and utilize the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Fr. Mike
