John 8:1-11, the Woman caught in the act of adultery

This is an intriguing gospel today. We have to remember that in the gospel of John the Evangelist, every detail he mentions has some special significance. So there is a danger here of “not seeing the forest because of the trees,” as they say. So first let's get one distracting event out of the way.

What was Jesus writing on the ground? We don't know. But everyone likes to speculate about that. Ideas range all over the place, from simple “doodling” to writing down the sins of the accusers. One scholar suggests that maybe Jesus was imitating the actions of a Roman judge, who always wrote down his legal sentence before he read it aloud. I personally like to think it was a symbolic act by Jesus, writing on the ground with his finger, which would remind people that on Mt. Sinai the covenant of love was written in stone by the finger of God (Ex 31).

Anyway, that “writing” action by Jesus is not the main message of the gospel story of the woman accused of adultery. For me, the thrust of the story is about conversion, and it has two main parts. First, it reveals the hypocrisy of the accusers; and secondly, it reveals the unconditional love of Jesus.

First let's look at what “conversion” really means. Fr. John Hardon's “Modern Catholic Dictionary” puts it this way: (Quote) “Conversion [is] any turning or changing from a state of sin to repentance.” (End Q)

Now, it is pretty obvious from John's gospel that the Pharisees and the Scribes had not been converted. They were soaked in their own self-righteousness, full of sinful pride in what they thought was their strict observance of a whole slew of man-made rules and regulations. So they liked to “point fingers” at people they judged to be sinners. But “conversion” requires us to recognize and acknowledge our own sin, not the sins of others. Because of their blindness to their own sins, they were hypocrites. A religious “hypocrite” is an actor, one who pretends to have moral qualities that he does not possess, and his motive is always sinful pride. Jesus did not condemn the Pharisees; they condemned themselves by their own actions.

The second part of the episode contains the beauty of the story. The woman certainly expected to be judged, because of the hostility of the Pharisees. This was a serious offense: adultery was one of the “big” sins that merited death by stoning. Stoning, of course, was really “torture leading to death” because it took longer for the accused to die. But what happened instead? She received the experience of being set free, the experience of love from the heart of Jesus. When Jesus tells her to “go, and from now on sin no more,” she knows that she has been forgiven! No one has condemned her, not even Jesus!

This is what our God wants to do for us, also! He wants us to stop being hypocritical Pharisees, always judging someone else. He wants us to acknowledge our sinfulness, especially our judgmental attitudes. Have you ever confessed a judgmental attitude? If you haven't, then perhaps you might be either a Saint or a Pharisee, I don't know...God knows. The key question to ask could be this, as my friend Gazelle says: “Are we are ready to receive others back as graciously” as the father did, in the story of the Prodigal Son?

Jesus is waiting for us to come back, to take the road home. Jesus wants us to ask for his forgiveness, and receive his forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession, which he provided for us. That is a primary way that we can experience the love of Jesus; he is longing to set us free! The thing that got the Scribes and Pharisees got into trouble was just the opposite. Instead of leading sinners back to repentance and forgiveness, they judged them and focused on punishment rather than conversion and reconciliation.

I can remember when I was in the military, the non-Catholics used to tease all the Catholics in my unit about partying too much, and then going to Confession, and then going out and doing “the same-old same-old”! What they did not understand was that Catholics truly believe in the grace of the Sacrament, and that they are not trying to cheat the system! St. Paul says in Romans 7, “Why do I do the things that I hate to do?” He knew that the mystery of sin existed; but he also knew that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” That is why we go to Confession; we know—just like the woman caught in adultery—we know that we will experience the forgiving love of Jesus in this great Sacrament.

There is a Catholic writer (John Mallon) who says: “Confessing the same stupid sins over and over is humiliating, but that is exactly why it is good for us (apart from the penance and graces of the sacrament.” Humility is VERY good for the soul! When we go to confession, we are demonstrating that this humiliating action is our recognition of our total dependency upon the grace of God. It also demonstrates that we believe in the power of the Sacrament, the power of the love of Jesus to cleanse our soul.

If our Lenten journey has not been up to our expectations, then God is always giving us one more chance to start over. We must avoid depending on our own strength; rather, we must ask the Lord for his graces, and truly repent and start over every single day. God is always waiting for our hearts to open, so that he can say: “You are forgiven. Now go and sin no more.” Let us never waste a spirit-filled opportunity for grace!

(Comments to Paul at deaconpaul@cox.net.)