Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

Human Dysfunction Meets Divine Mercy

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, April 6, 2025

In virtually every human society, the problem of scapegoating an individual or group of people is prevalent. When challenges arise in a community or nation, people instinctively project their collective problems to a single person or group. This propensity to look for a scapegoat, someone or a group to blame for societal wrongs, is termed the scapegoat mechanism by French historian Rene Girard. Upon identifying a scapegoat, a sense of social order and unity is temporarily restored. You can see the scapegoat mechanism here in the USA and around the world. You can hear the scapegoat mechanism in discussions among family members, in public venues, and unfortunately, even from religious pulpits. Why do we engage in this scapegoating move? Because it satisfies our sense of justice and also makes us feel united during troubled times. 

Why am I talking about the scapegoat mechanism and scapegoating move? Because it is on full display in today’s Gospel (John 8:1-11). Jesus is in the temple. In him, the glory of Yahweh (Shekhinah), has returned to the temple just the same way he had left. What follows? The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman and say, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.” What are they doing? They are scapegoating her. They are humiliating her and exposing her to death. By making her stand in public, anything could have happened to her right there. Some religious self-righteous fanatics could have killed her even before Jesus had any chance of saving her. After making the woman stand in the public, they weaponized the law against her: “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.” They are using the Law, the great tradition of Israel in a deeply dysfunctional and harmful way. This is Rene Girard’s theory of scapegoat mechanism on full display. Think about this! If they actually caught her in the very act, the question is: where exactly were they when they caught her in the very act? How long had they been waiting and watching in order to catch her in the very act of adultery? And what happened to the man who was committing adultery with the woman? It takes two to do the act, isn’t it? By the way, before you frown your face, this story is all of us. We are so good at finding scapegoats. Just like the scribes and Pharisees, we know the Law of God well enough. We know the precepts of the Church and we are probably observing them. Good! It is vitally important to know God’s Law and the Church’s ordinances. It is also critically important to observe them. But if I am constantly finding scapegoats and saying, “Look at what he has done,” “Look at what she has done,” “She is divorced and shouldn’t be here,” “He is too liberal,” “She is too conservative,” “They are the ones destroying our Church and I have the law to support me” I tell you, I am in a very bad spiritual place. As I said already, knowing the Law and observing them is important. But St. Paul and Gospel writers, as well as Jesus himself are intensely aware of the dangers of the Law. St. Paul knew people often use the Law as a weapon of aggression. How? If I know what is right and wrong, and I am meticulously observing them, I can be tempted to see myself as someone uniquely positioned to point out the flaws of others. And when I point out the flaws of others, I elevate myself above others. I end up using the beautiful Law of God to fan my ugly ego. 

What does the Lord do? John says, “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.” This is the only time in the Bible that Jesus is ever described as writing on the ground. How do we interpret his first move? He wants to break up the aggressive mob. A mob is formed when one person tells another, “Did you hear what she did?” And the person tells another and on and on and on. And before you know it, a mob is formed through scapegoating and gossiping. But by writing on the ground, Jesus disempowers the mob. He delays their rage. He makes them wonder and wait. He refuses to cooperate with them. If you see a mob of gossip forming, you can also disempower the mob by not cooperating. But what exactly did Jesus write? John didn’t tell us. But the Church Fathers speculate Jesus was writing the sin of each person holding those stones waiting to put the woman away. He is turning the negative energy they created against them. My late mother used to say, “When you are pointing an accusing finger at someone, remember that three of your fingers are pointing towards you, and your thumb is pointing at the bad things you’ve done.” After writing, Jesus delivers one of the most devastating one-liners in the Bible, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He’s basically saying: “I get the law of Moses. I am not here to undermine it. It did say such people should be stoned. But if any among you is sinless, be the first to throw a stone at her.” Upon hearing the challenge, reality sets in. John says, “They went away one by one, beginning with the elders.” In a non-threatening way, in a nonviolent way, Jesus breaks up the angry mob. Thereby showing us a good example of how nonviolence can be the answer to violence. He shows us the divine way of dealing with tensed issues like this. Look at this way: if Jesus had reacted in anger, if he had challenged the mob, threatened to form his own mob, and fought over this obvious cruelty, the woman and some other people would have been killed. 

After dispersing the mob, Jesus turns to the woman and says, “Woman…has no one condemned you? “ She replies, “No one, sir.” Again, Jesus drops another famous one-liner, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” He does not make excuses for the sinful woman. He does not endorse her immorality. He never said to her, “don’t worry about it, what you did is not a sin.” He is rightly stating the fact: the woman sinned just like everyone else. But after making that point, Jesus invites her to a higher life, the divine life: “Go, and from now do not sin any more.” She is being invited to not live like everyone else and to walk the divine path. In Jesus, God has reentered the temple. What’s the temple meant to be? It is the place where God’s love meets our sin. This is the reason why we should never discourage anyone from coming to church. And this is why we should form the habit of coming to church. Why? Because in the temple, in the House of God, our stupidity, corruption, injustice, etc will meet God’s love. As the great St. Augustine said, “At the end of this story, all that is left is “misera et misericordia” that is, misery and mercy. That’s what the temple was meant to be. It is the place where the misery of our sin meets the mercy of God. This is what our Church should be. This is what St. Bridget should be. Elevating yourself as an upright person is not God’s way. Humiliating a sinner publicly is not God’s way. Scapegoating in any form or shape is not God’s way. Using the Law as a weapon of aggression is not God’s way. God’s way is the way of love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion and nonviolence.