5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. A.Valan MMI
Mary Queen of the Apostles Parish, Gurei
Today's liturgy of the word of God is stressing on the mercy and love of God towards the sinners. The incident in the Gospel is specific to the Gospel of John (8:1-11); It has lots of insights and message for us in the modern world.
The Gospel reading opens with the scene that Jesus goes to the temple to pray and teach, thus Jesus shows that he draws his energy through prayers. He imparts the same with all the people without any discrimination, because he and his message is for all the people of good will, who sincerely seek God in their lives. At this moment the Pharisees bring the woman caught in adultery there. They ask Jesus to trap him; in either way Jesus would be in trouble; that is, if he says, she should be stoned to death, he has no mercy or love for the sinners, then what is the use of teaching that God is merciful, loving and forgiving? In case he lets the woman go free, he can be accused of going against the Law of Moses, which is very sacred for them. At times we are also trapped by others, and how do we respond such situations? No worry, we have Jesus who shows us the way to over come. The act of Jesus is so amazing, Jesus bends down to write something on the floor with his finger; no mention about what he wrote; some say, that he wrote the sins of those Pharisees standing there; or may be he was angry and wanted to control, because
a) The woman is caught 'in the very act' of adultery; that means, that man also would have been around there; but they bring only the woman, why not the man? They let him go free, and want to punish only her, why so? The sixth commandment is common for both men and women; because of their women-oppressive attitude, they accuse only the woman
b) Jesus is angry with their legalistic attitude. "Law for the sake of Law" – no concern for humanity; law must be rooted in love, not in blind arrogance;
Finally Jesus utters his words of wisdom saying "Let anyone among you without sin stone her first" - a great shock for them; for a) Jesus escaped any accusation; and
b) He has turned it against on them now; the ball is in their court now
This statement has become very popular even among the non-Christians; this challenges the very condemning attitude of ours. Jesus is very clear, only God can judge others; humans don't have the right and capacity to do that.
"They leave one-by-one" – They all came in a group, in a big crowd to condemn her, but while going, they go one-by-one, Why they don't now leave in a group? It has a special message, its to say, Condemning attitude comes with the group, but realization very often has to come individually, personally, its Mob psychology - no time, no patience, no mood to 'think' or reason out, when they are in crowd 'they did not condemn' – for, now they got the self-realization that they too are in the same boat of having to receive forgiveness; they also have committed a lot of sins, if not this particular crime, many more other crimes, may be much more serious one. Therefore, self-realization in fact opens up our eyes, we see things differently, our ignorance is removed; we are ready to tolerate, accept and forgive others.
Jesus makes the sinner free by saying 'Neither do I condemn you"
So Jesus did not come to condemn, but to make them realize that the need for God in their lives, so that they live properly. For Jesus, sinner comes before the sins, but we see only the sin first, and then the sinner; and that is why, often it is not possible for us to forgive others. Sin robs of your social status; they have dragged the woman here just like an animal; she has lost her human dignity in their eyes because of the sins, it is the sin that takes the peace of mind. Above all, sin deprives you of God's forgiving love and mercy; it takes away the grace and presence of God from your soul and heart; it makes you lose the image and likeness of God with which you have been lovingly created by God.
'From now on…" – Jesus does not worry about the past; for some reasons or the other you have gone astray, God tolerates that, but what are we going to do now and in future. That is more important. If our realization and coming back to God is really strong and firm, we will not go back to our ways of sinfulness, like the conversion of St. Paul. So let us stop judging, accusing and condemning others rather let us practice the virtues of love, mercy and compassion and be worthy children of God to celebrate the upcoming great event Easter.
(Story: Though we know this story, yet it is worth repeating, Once upon a time a man was caught stealing and was brought before the king, who immediately gave orders that he be hanged. However, as he was being led the gallows, the man told the prison governor that he knew a wonderful secret, which was taught him by his father. He claimed using this secret he could plant the seed of a special orange tree and make it grow and bear fruit overnight. He said it would a pity if the secret died with him, and that he was willing to reveal it to the king. The governor was so impressed that he halted the execution, and brought the man back before the king. There the man a dug hole in the ground, and taking an orange seed said, 'your majesty, the seed must be planted by a person who was never taken anything that did not belong to him. I being a thief can not do it.' Then turning to one of the king's officials he said, 'You would like to plant it'. But the official refused, saying. ' In my younger days I kept something that did not belong to me.' Then the man turn turned to king's treasurer and said, 'Well then, may be you would like to plant it.' But the treasurer to refused, saying, 'Over the years I have handled a lot of money. Now and again I might have kept a little for myself.' And so it went on. Finally there was only the king left, Turning to him the man said, 'Perhaps your majesty would o the honor of planting the seed.' But the king said, 'I am ashamed to say it, but once I kept a watch that belonged to my father.'
The thief said, 'All of you are great powerful people and want for nothing. Yet none of you can plant the seed, while I have stolen a little because I was starving, now I am going to be hanged.'
The king pardoned him, because the thief taught a best lesson of the life.)
Fr. Valan MMI
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