Fr. Marsel R. Taruk sx
Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.”
The quotation of this gospel acclamation somehow lead me to the theme of my reflection on the fifth Sunday of Lent gospel: our God is a merciful and full of compassion God”.
The Gospel passage is a lovely and one of my favorite periscopes of the Gospel. The questions always come to my mind is that How does it happen that a group of men catch a woman in the very act of committing adultery, and only the woman is apprehended? What happened to her partner? Was he too fast for the witnesses? The answer to these questions, one father made a comment during our lectio divina on the same text saying that the man was among the group ready to stone the woman.
The story continued that the scribes and Pharisees rushed to bring the alleged adulteress to Jesus for the sake of Justice and the obedience to the Law of Moses. They were out to get some charge on which they could discredit Jesus; and here they thought they had impaled him inescapably on the horns of a dilemma. The response of Jesus is rather very interesting: “he stooped down and began to write on the ground with his finger. Why did Jesus do that? At first, Jesus may quite simply have wished to take time and to be rushed into a decision. In that brief moment he may have been both thinking out and taking it to God. Furthermore, Jesus may have deliberately forced the scribes and Pharisees to repeat their charges, so that, in repeating them, they might possibly realize the sadistic cruelty which lay behind them. It might be Jesus was seized with an intolerable sense of Shame. He could meet the eye of the crowd, the accusers and at the moment the shameful eye of the woman, the center of attention. It may be well that the sneering, lustful look on the faces of the scribes and Pharisees, the break cruelty in their eyes, the curiosity of the crowd, the shame of the women are all combined to twist the heart of Jesus in agony and pity, so he bend down to hid his eyes and began to write on the ground.
What could be the writing of Jesus? He himself, according to one of manuscripts, bowing down his head was writing with his finger on the earth to declare their sins; and they were seeing their sins on the stones. Jesus was wring in the dust the sins of the very men who were accusing the woman. In other words, Jesus was confronting those self-confident sadists with the record of their own sins.
The Scribes and Pharisees continued to insist on an answer. When they continue to press him, they got the reply. Jesus said in effect: “All right! Stone her! But let the man that is without sin be the first to cast a stone.” It may well be that the word for without sin means not only without sin, but even without a sinful desire. So to say that Jesus might told them that yes, you might stone her but only if you never wanted to do the same thing yourselves. There was a silence and then slowly the accusers disappeared one by one. Jesus and the woman were left alone. There remained a great misery and a great pity. The words of Jesus to her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she says. Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Jesus forgives the sinner without denying the sin. Mercy invites conversion.
One of the commonest faults in life is that so many of us demands from others that we never even try to meet ourselves; and so many of us condemn faults in other which are glaringly obvious in our own lives. The qualification for judging is not knowledge since we all possess that; it is achievement in goodness and none of us is perfect there. The fact is that only God has the right to judge, for simple reason that no man is good enough to judge any other. Last, Jesus is truly a revelation of God mercy and compassion. When we focus exclusively on our own sinfulness we can easily lose sight of our goodness and God's mercy. Jesus responds even to profound sin with even more profound mercy.
Marsel Rt
@3-04-25
.
Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.”
The quotation of this gospel acclamation somehow lead me to the theme of my reflection on the fifth Sunday of Lent gospel: our God is a merciful and full of compassion God”.
The Gospel passage is a lovely and one of my favorite periscopes of the Gospel. The questions always come to my mind is that How does it happen that a group of men catch a woman in the very act of committing adultery, and only the woman is apprehended? What happened to her partner? Was he too fast for the witnesses? The answer to these questions, one father made a comment during our lectio divina on the same text saying that the man was among the group ready to stone the woman.
The story continued that the scribes and Pharisees rushed to bring the alleged adulteress to Jesus for the sake of Justice and the obedience to the Law of Moses. They were out to get some charge on which they could discredit Jesus; and here they thought they had impaled him inescapably on the horns of a dilemma. The response of Jesus is rather very interesting: “he stooped down and began to write on the ground with his finger. Why did Jesus do that? At first, Jesus may quite simply have wished to take time and to be rushed into a decision. In that brief moment he may have been both thinking out and taking it to God. Furthermore, Jesus may have deliberately forced the scribes and Pharisees to repeat their charges, so that, in repeating them, they might possibly realize the sadistic cruelty which lay behind them. It might be Jesus was seized with an intolerable sense of Shame. He could meet the eye of the crowd, the accusers and at the moment the shameful eye of the woman, the center of attention. It may be well that the sneering, lustful look on the faces of the scribes and Pharisees, the break cruelty in their eyes, the curiosity of the crowd, the shame of the women are all combined to twist the heart of Jesus in agony and pity, so he bend down to hid his eyes and began to write on the ground.
What could be the writing of Jesus? He himself, according to one of manuscripts, bowing down his head was writing with his finger on the earth to declare their sins; and they were seeing their sins on the stones. Jesus was wring in the dust the sins of the very men who were accusing the woman. In other words, Jesus was confronting those self-confident sadists with the record of their own sins.
The Scribes and Pharisees continued to insist on an answer. When they continue to press him, they got the reply. Jesus said in effect: “All right! Stone her! But let the man that is without sin be the first to cast a stone.” It may well be that the word for without sin means not only without sin, but even without a sinful desire. So to say that Jesus might told them that yes, you might stone her but only if you never wanted to do the same thing yourselves. There was a silence and then slowly the accusers disappeared one by one. Jesus and the woman were left alone. There remained a great misery and a great pity. The words of Jesus to her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she says. Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Jesus forgives the sinner without denying the sin. Mercy invites conversion.
One of the commonest faults in life is that so many of us demands from others that we never even try to meet ourselves; and so many of us condemn faults in other which are glaringly obvious in our own lives. The qualification for judging is not knowledge since we all possess that; it is achievement in goodness and none of us is perfect there. The fact is that only God has the right to judge, for simple reason that no man is good enough to judge any other. Last, Jesus is truly a revelation of God mercy and compassion. When we focus exclusively on our own sinfulness we can easily lose sight of our goodness and God's mercy. Jesus responds even to profound sin with even more profound mercy.
Marsel Rt
@3-04-25
.