Monday, March 23, 2026

 

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Daniel 13:1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62; John 8:12-20)

The woman whom Jesus confronts Jesus in today’s Gospel has committed a grave sin. Although adultery is not the worst of sins, its effects can be disastrous. It can destroy marriages and will undermine the upbringing of children. Furthermore, it leads other couples to suspicion and distrust. But this woman is not the only sinner in the Temple area this day. Jesus' challenge to the Pharisees reveals that they too have sinned.

Jesus offers the woman an opportunity to repent. As he will say in the next chapter of the Gospel according to John, he came not to "judge" (that is, to condemn), but to save. The woman, once forgiven by Jesus, has an open future. Jesus encourages her to follow the path of holiness.

C.S. Lewis is cited as having said that violating chastity is not a worse sin than pride.  Although they may have greater social repercussions, sins against chastity normally do not bring sinners to think of themselves as greater than God.  In sins of pride, on the other hand, perpetrators often see themselves as having greater authority than God. Although they would be loathed to admit it, the Pharisees of the gospel come close to making that claim.  They would have the woman stoned so that their supposed enemy, Jesus, might lose prominence among the people.  Temptations to both these kinds of sins are prominent in the world today.  As Jesus prompts the woman and the Pharisees, we also want to avoid both kinds of sin.

Monday, March 27, 2023

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

( Daniel 13:1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62; John 8:12-20)

Biblical scholars are convinced that today’s gospel passage was not originally part of John’s gospel.  They say that somehow in the process of copying the Scriptures it was displaced probably from the Gospel of Luke.  Be that as it may, the passage conforms to well-known verses from John.

In at least two places Jesus says that he has not come to condemn or judge but to save (3:17, 12:47).  In today’s passage Jesus does just that.  The Pharisees and scribes bring the adulteress to Jesus with nefarious intentions.  They expect him to say that the woman should be forgiven where the Law clearly states stoning is in order (see Leviticus 20:10).  Jesus, seeing through their scheme, frustrates it.  He won’t contradict the Law but calls for the person without sin to cast the first stone.  His adversaries at least have the honesty to recognize that they have all sinned.  They sheepishly leave the scene.

Applying Jesus’ wisdom to ourselves, we must recognize that we too have participated in evil.  This recognition should deter us from punishing others for their sins.  We might hear ourselves saying that we want to “teach them a lesson.”  That role should be left to those who stand in the place of God – governments, parents, maybe teachers and others.  We are wise not to cast stones.

Monday of the Fifth Week in Lent

(Daniel 13:1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62; John 8:12-20)

At the Seder Supper Jews recite a song called "Dayenu", Hebrew for “it would have been enough.” Each verse of the song tells of a wonder that God worked in bringing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The refrain after each verse is "Dayenu", that wonder alone would have been enough for them to believe. So the Jews gave praise to God for bringing their ancestors out of Egypt, for feeding them with manna in the desert, for pronouncing the Sabbath rest, etc. After listening to the gospel story today, we are inclined to say “Dayenu,” that judgment alone on behalf of the woman caught in adultery would have been enough for us to recognize Jesus as God’s Son. But, of course, there is so much more.

The Pharisees’ condemnation of the woman is patently unjust for several reasons. First, the punishment does not fit the crime. Granted that adultery is serious in a society where cohesion is necessary for survival. But it is also a sin especially susceptible to fallen human nature. Capital punishment for adultery is equivalent to beating a child for eating too much candy. Then, there is the question of the whereabouts of the man in the adulterous affair. Justice demands that he too be apprehended, tried, and duly punished. Finally, the Pharisees are using the woman as an arrow to shoot Jesus. Their fading away with Jesus’ challenge about casting the first stone indicates that the woman’s fate is inconsequential as long as the increasingly popular new master is discredited.

It is not hard to follow Jesus as we march onto to Holy Week. Indeed we should see ourselves as the crowd welcoming him into Jerusalem. But to make him our model every day of our lives, even when doing the right thing becomes a steep and rocky climb, requires committed faith. Seeing Jesus’ wisdom as well as his power and his love for others, we echo the Jews’ “Dayenu.” Any of these wonders would be enough for us to believe in him. But taken together, how can we doubt that he is worthy of allegiance?