Fifth Sunday of Lent (C)

TRACING OR ERASING IN THE SAND?

by Robert P. Waznak, S.S.

Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

From the beginning,
folks have been more than curious about what
Jesus traced on the sand.

St. Jerome was one of the first serious speculators.

He guessed that when Jesus bent down,
he traced the sins of those men
seeking to stone the woman to death.

Some scholars have suggested that Jesus' tracing on the sand was a gesture of silence;
he was like Isaiah's "suffering servant,"
who "opened not his mouth" to those seeking to trap him. Some have suggested a spiritual reason -

Jesus' tracing was a silent time to pray
to the Father for advice.

Others have offered more practical reasons -

Jesus was simply doodling in the sand
until the time was right to speak
or even waiting for the woman's lover
to be dragged before the crowd of accusers
since strict observance of the Mosaic law
required both adulterers be stoned to death,
both the man and the woman.

I would like to add yet another theory
to this curious gesture of Jesus. Maybe Jesus wasn't tracing but erasing on the sand.

That theory makes sense when we hear this gospel
in light of our first reading from the prophet Isaiah.

The reading from Isaiah comes from a time
when Israel was held captive in Babylon,
when the only hope left was the memory of a glorious past. And so while Israel sweated it out
in a foreign land for fifty years,
the only consolation left for the people was to sing about the wonderful exodus time
when God first freed Israel from Egypt.

In other words,
the only consolation left for the people in Babylon
was for them to remember the "good old days"
when God was on their side.

But what is so jolting about this reading from Isaiah
is that God tells the people to "cut it out.-

God tells the people to take a big eraser and wipe out the past, and not just the bad and sinful memories,
but the good memories as well.

As long as the people dwelt on the past,
including their past glories,
they could never make a fresh interpretation of the present and believe in a God who would lead them out of Babylon and bring them back to the promised land.

And so when Jesus bent down,
he may have been erasing in the sand
not just the sins of the men and the woman in their midst, but all their past glories as well.

Jesus may have been erasing
all those patriarchal interpretations
of religious and social law
that kept women "in their place."

Jesus bends down and erases in the sand
not just their sins
but the narrow interpretations they still clung to.

Recently in Rome
a four-day meeting ended between thirty-four American archbishops
and Vatican officials.

The meeting was designed to help both Rome and the U.S. church to understand one another.

One of the hottest moments of the meeting in Rome came on Friday when the church leaders addressed the serious problems of
sexual promiscuity
and the alarming statistics of abortion and divorce
in the United States.

Fingers were pointed at the American church
for granting too many annulments.

Some Vatican officials blamed the ease of getting annulments
on women religious employed now
in diocesan marriage tribunals.

One cardinal declared,
"Women religious can be very helpful in dealing with marriage cases, but we have to be careful that their tender hearts do not play tricks on them."

Today, in Rome, those men heard at mass
this same gospel of compassion.

We can only pray that they, too, paid attention to Jesus erasing in the sand
not just the sins of the doctors of the law and the Pharisees but the tired old memories and interpretations
some still clung to.

What the church needs at this present moment
is not to cling to the male domination of the past,
but to pay attention to
the tender and tough hearts of women,
so long ignored.

What the church needs now
is not to cling to the good old days of power
when the church spoke and people jumped,
but to listen to the struggles and the joys
of ordinary people today,
and then speak against sin with Jesus' voice of compassion.

It is something of an irony that we have
this gospel of compassion
at the conclusion of the meeting in Rome.

This particular gospel story didn't appear
in the original manuscripts of John.

It wasn't inserted into John's gospel
until the third or fourth century.

It seems that the reason this story took so long
to be included in the canon of the Bible
is that during that period,
church authorities were trying to enforce
a strict discipline over marriages.

The story of the woman caught in adultery seemed at that time to encourage laxity in marriage standards.

Of course, this was a false impression.

After all, Jesus did say to the woman,
"From now on, avoid this sin."

Jesus named sin as sin.

But he also looked at the woman and the men
in their present moment and announced
the forgiveness of God.

Thank God some of our American bishops had the good sense
to speak up at the meeting in Rome.

They said,
"Before you judge us and throw your stones at us,
come to the United States and see for yourselves what a church we have."

Thank God some of our American bishops have the courage
to read the signs of the times
and address such serious issues as sexism in our world
and in our church.

In their working document,
Partners in the Mystery of Redemption,
they remind us of the equal dignity owed to women.

They quote Pope John Paul II who said,
"The church proclaims the dignity of women as women ...
a dignity equal to men's dignity."

Thank God we have a Savior who bends down and erases in the sand
not only our sins
but the hindering memories and interpretations
that still weigh us down.

Thank God this gospel survived the misgivings of religious men. That's why we can call it "good news!"

(Reprinted with permission from Like Fresh Bread, pp. 63-66. Copyright 1993 by Robert P. Waznak. Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ. Order this book, or other resources at a discount, through the Homiletic Resource Center.)