It is really awesome how the first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah fits with the gospel. At first glance, the scriptures from Isaiah have nothing to do with the gospel today. God opens a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, leading an entire army to drown in the sea. This of course, is the parting of the red sea and describes how the Pharaoh’s entire army drowned in the sea, while they were in hot pursuit of Moses and his people.
Then God says not to remember the events of the past, that He is doing something new. We are on the brink of something new. A new path in the desert will open up, where the Lord our God will put springs of living waters for his people to drink. The people He formed for His own, that they may always praise Him.
The second reading from the book of Philippians also talks about pursuing the hope of a new life, straining forward to what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind. Saint Paul says that all he desires is to gain Christ and be found in Him, yet he does not have any righteousness himself, but only that which comes through faith in Christ.
And then, we have one of the most beautiful, powerful stories in the gospels about the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who committed adultery and made her stand in the middle while they all gathered around her, to accuse her in front of Christ.
The past few days, the readings for mass has focused on a negative crowd mentality and how the crowd ganged up against God’s people to find fault with them and condemn them too, especially our Lord who was accused of blasphemy in front of his own peers, the Jewish leaders as well.
Jesus at first doesn’t have anything to say to the crowd who accused her. He nonchalantly ignores them and draws in the sand. This is significant because he was actually giving the crowd a moment to calm down before he addressed them. It is very difficult to communicate with irate people. In the readings this past Wednesday, Moses knew this too when he asked God to calm down before he attempted to talk to Him in a rational manner as well.
The Pharisees who had ganged up around the woman and Jesus, would not let it go though. They insisted he tell them the right thing to do. Perhaps they had heard the rumors of his compassion for sinners and wanted to trap him into allowing the adulteress to violate their law.
Jesus opened up a path of love, through the condemning attitude of the crowd who had ganged up against this woman, though. He cleared a path through hatred, converting it instead into love for everyone involved. This is one of the most beautiful stories in the bible because of how Christ converted hatred into love, sin into forgiveness. Slavery to guilt, into freedom from sin.
Jesus simply turned the focus of the crowd’s attention off of this woman and her sin, back to themselves and gave them some quiet time to think about it. In the silence, they heard God’s voice speaking to them and finally recognized a part of themselves in this woman’s sin. Perhaps their sins were not the same as hers, but they could identify the sins they committed that did accuse them before the Lord. Jesus cut a path through their judgment and self righteous anger that was directed at this woman, toward their own guilt, thereby setting them free from their own attitudes. The Pharisees left one by one, hopefully to be more compassionate and judge others less from that point on. Jesus opened up a place in their hearts and cleared out a new path for their future, to be capable of loving others in a new and different way.
One can only imagine the woman who knew her guilt before God and man because her sin of adultery. She knew the penalty for her sin and had probably expected to be stoned to death that day. This woman must have been shocked when one by one the crowd dispersed, because she never said a word until Jesus addressed her: “Woman where are they? Has no one condemned you?” Just to be able to say the words “No one, sir”, must have been a huge relief and a healing thing, in and of itself. But, when Jesus said “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” The relief she felt must have been the most healing experience of her entire life. Jesus literally gave this woman a brand new life, not only by not condemning her, but by changing the attitudes of the Jewish leaders and community in which she lived too. He enabled her to return to her community reconciled with them and with God as well. This is what we mean when we say that Jesus came into the world to set us free from sin and reconcile us to our Father.
We can probably see many different parts of ourselves in this story from the gospel today. The accusations, condemnation, judgmental and self righteous attitudes we may have had at one time or another in our lives. All of us have sinned, some worse than others. But, in the gospel Jesus shows us that he forgives each of us equally. We are all equal in his eyes and he loves each of us no matter how little or much we may have sinned.
Jesus reconciles us with God and with one another and in our modern times, it is through the sacrament of confession. He waits for us there, to bring his healing love to us as well. Once restored to a state of grace, there is no one better than the other in God’s family. We can let go of the guilt and lift up our eyes to Jesus and see a better future, a better life ahead of us, as we journey together toward Easter and one day to eternal life.
