Condemn The Fallen, Only If You Are Faultless

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Today’s Gospel taken from John 8: 1-11, tells us that the Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery to Jesus and said to him: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.” According to the Gospel passage, they just wanted to use her to set Jesus up. They wanted Jesus to either dispute the prescription of their law for offenders or to forgive the sinful woman so that they will use it to press charges against him. It is also possible they wanted Jesus to stamp and seal the stoning of the woman to death. But Jesus demonstrated he was by far wiser than all of them. Instead of falling into their trap, the Lord demanded “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Of course the demand of Jesus was insurmountable because all have sinned. So “...in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.” Then Jesus was all alone with the adulterous woman. In consonance with his nature, the Lord, unlike the heartless accusers offered mercy, forgiveness and restoration to the woman: “Neither would I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Beloved in Christ, Jesus teaches us through this Gospel passage that only a person without fault can rightly judge and condemn others for their fault. In Matthew 7: 1, the Lord says “Judge not so that you may not be judged.” We cannot pretend to be faultless, attempting to remove the little speck of dust in our brother’s or sister’s eye when we have a plank in our own eyes. In life, it is easy to demand standards from others that we never even try to meet ourselves. Several times we criticize harshly the faults in others which are very visible in our own lives. We easily judge others cruelly of the same faults that we too have. None of us is perfect! Therefore, the common weakness of all men and women means that only God has the right to judge. No one is good enough to engage in a judgement of condemnation. Thus, our reaction to anyone who has erred no matter how grave the sin is, should be pity. When confronted by someone who has fallen, our response should not be rejection: “If you can do something like that, I will have nothing to do with you.” Instead we should seek for ways to help our fallen brother or sister. Since we expect pity from others when we have fallen, let’s also extend the same compassionate pity to our fallen brothers and sisters.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates that even though God is full of mercy and compassion, he still expects us to strive to live a virtuous life. A distant look at today’s Gospel story may suggest a lax on the side of Jesus. Someone might think that he was too lenient with sin as if sin does not really matter. But the Lord wasn’t. He forgave the sinful woman but quickly added “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” In justice, he calls her sin what it is: wrong. And in mercy, he sets her free: “neither do I condemn you.” Jesus  refused to join the Scribes and the Pharisees in condemning the sinful woman to death. Instead, he offered her a second chance: I am not going to pass a death verdict on you but I want you to go and prove that you can do better. While the accusers of the woman prescribed death penalty according to their law, the old law, Jesus prescribed compassionate pity according to the new law of love. The Lord gave her a second chance: 

Yes, you have messed up yourself; and all is not well with your present life, but you are not yet a finished product; therefore I am giving you another chance to clean up yourself,  to redeem your image and prove to the naysayers that you aren’t finished yet. Woman, I forgive you!  But I want you to change your behavior. I want you to choose between going back to your old way of life and thereafter face the wrath of your accusers and eternal separation from God or change your lifestyle and mend your life.

In Jesus there is the gospel of the second chance. The Lord is interested not only in what a person had been, but also in what a person could become. The greatest sinner today could become an amazing saint tomorrow. So, by telling her: “Go and do not sin again” Jesus demonstrates his belief in human nature. Saying and expecting a woman of loose moral to “Go, and do not sin again” shows his belief that the worst today can become among the best and the greatest tomorrow. 

This gospel passage again emphasizes that Jesus did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.