April 6, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Year C Readings
Lectionary: 36
Reading I
Thus says the LORD,
who opens a
way in the sea
and a path
in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and horsemen,
a powerful
army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out
and quenched like a wick.
Remember not the events of the past,
the things
of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!
Now it
springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the desert I make a way,
in the
wasteland, rivers.
Wild beasts honor me,
jackals and
ostriches,
for I put water in the desert
and rivers
in the wasteland
for my
chosen people to drink,
the people whom I formed for myself,
that they
might announce my praise.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us;
we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like
men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our
tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD
has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad
indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the
torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap
rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the
seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying
their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God,
depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection
and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
It is not that I have already taken hold of it
or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it,
since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I for my part
do not consider myself to have taken possession.
Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind
but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal,
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.
Verse before the Gospel
Even now, says the Lord,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They 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.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040625-YearC.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11
God has a very bad memory. That is one way we might express
the theme of today’s readings. For the Scripture of today’s Mass speaks of how
God is always compassionate to his people. No matter how many times the
Israelites abandoned their God, no matter how many times they became
‘stiff-necked’ and refused to do his will, he always came to call them back.
In the whole of the New Testament we see God, in the person
of Jesus, calling his sinful people to be converted, to put their whole trust
in the message he brings and to follow his Way, as the way of truth and life.
Jesus can be called the Sacrament of God among us. A
sacrament in general is a visible manifestation of the power of God working
among us. So when we see the man Jesus, we are seeing God (though imperfectly,
because what we actually see through Jesus’ humanity is not, cannot be the
totality of a transcendent God). When we hear Jesus, we are hearing God. When
Jesus acts, a human being like ourselves is acting and speaking, but it is also
our God acting and speaking. So in reading today’s Gospel, when we see Jesus
with the sinful woman, we are also seeing God.
Two kinds of sinners
We might say there are two kinds of sinners in today’s Gospel passage. First,
there is the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, a very serious
matter. But there is no mention of the other party—the man. It takes two people
to commit adultery. One person committing adultery—unless it is purely in the
mind—is like the Japanese concept of one hand clapping. Of course, in Jewish as
in other societies where purity of the family line was vital, because the woman
was the one who bore the child, the stigma of adultery and the birth of an
illegitimate child was laid on her. Moreover, when a married woman commits
adultery, it may not be certain who is the real father of the child she bears.
An adulterous man, on the other hand, may produce an illegitimate child, but
from this perspective, it is the problem of the woman and her family and not
him or his family.
But in this story, the scribes and Pharisees are also
sinners. Not in their own eyes, of course, but in the eyes of Jesus and his
Gospel they are totally lacking in the compassion that God displays and which
he expects his followers to have:
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke
6:36)
The Pharisees and the scribes are proud and arrogant; they
give themselves the prerogative to sit in judgment on others. They have no idea
how to love or how to forgive—only how to keep the Law. They are thus far from
God. They do not love the people that God loves.
But before we ourselves sit in judgment on them, we might
sincerely ask how many of us would have acted differently than they did in this
particular case? How would many of us react if we discovered a spouse, a son or
daughter, not to mention a stranger or public figure, in an adulterous
relationship?
Representing all of us
The woman in this story is not just an isolated sinner. She represents all of
us. She represents every person who has sinned. She represents you and me. And
the scribes and Pharisees, who were sinners too, also represent you and me. We
sin in both ways: when we hurt others by indulging our desires at their expense
and when we hurt others by setting ourselves up as superior and better than
they. If we had been there that day, what would we have done? Would we have
condemned the guilty woman too? Even during the past week, how many people have
we condemned in our hearts or in our words? Are we regular readers of
newspapers or watchers of TV programmes which delight in rubbishing people and
destroying their lives? How many people have we ourselves passed judgement on?
On the other hand, to how many have we extended a hand of love and compassion?
How Jesus treats people
Now let us look at Jesus in this scene. First of all, Jesus does not deny the
woman’s sin. She has sinned, and very seriously. Adultery
involves an intimate sexual liaison between two people, at least one of whom is
already married. It is a serious breach of trust in the marriage relationship
and a serious act of injustice to the innocent partner in the marriage. The
seriousness is really in this breach of trust and the injustice to one’s
partner rather than the sexual activities, which, in this case, are secondary.
The story does not tell us whether the woman was married or not. What is
admitted by all—by Jesus, the Pharisees and the woman herself—is that she
sinned.
Pawn in a game
However, there is another element in the story which is not explicitly
mentioned, but is strongly implied. The woman has been dragged before Jesus as
a pawn in a game. The game is one of entrapment. The Pharisees say:
Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of
committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now
what do you say?
They hope to put the rabbi who eats and drinks with sinners
on a collision course with the sacred traditions coming from Moses. They hope
to condemn him from his own mouth. They reason that if he agrees with Moses, he
belies his own teaching and behaviour with sinners; if he rejects the Law of
Moses, he can be denounced as no man of God.
Jesus at first ignores their question, which reveals how far
they are from understanding what he has been teaching and doing. He bends down
and writes with his finger on the sandy ground. There has been much speculation
about what he might have been writing, but it seems to be a way of refusing to
walk into their all too obvious trap. When they persist, he says:
Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to
throw a stone at her.
To their credit, not one of them took up the challenge. One
by one, beginning with the most senior, they slipped quietly out of his sight.
This is the first teaching of today’s Gospel: only one without sin (i.e. God)
can sit in judgment on another person. To put it more colloquially: people in
glass houses cannot throw stones. Yet, do we not do this all the time?
No condemnation
Now only Jesus and the woman are left. Her accusers are gone and the one person
remaining is not going to accuse her. He says to her:
Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?….Neither
do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.
Unlike the Pharisees and scribes, upholders of the Law,
Jesus refuses to condemn her. Rather he gives her an opportunity to repent, to
convert and change her ways. Jesus came not to condemn, but to save, to
rehabilitate and to give new and enduring life. Jesus always leaves a door
open.
Our instinct is to punish and even destroy the wrongdoer.
Every day we see the media condemning and even claiming to be ‘shocked’ by the
misdemeanours of the famous and the not so famous. How do we think Jesus would
deal with such people?
If God acted like the Pharisees, how many times would I
myself have been condemned or destroyed? But no matter how many times I sin, no
matter how seriously I sin—even if the whole of society condemns me and
expresses horror and revulsion at my behaviour—God calls me to start over
again, to change my ways of seeing life and other people. How often does he do
this? Once or twice? No, he does this “seventy times seven times”—in other
words, indefinitely!
One popular Sunday missal offers these comments on today’s
Mass:
“The utter completeness of Christ’s forgiveness is almost
incredible. When he says to us Neither do I condemn you, the past is dead,
snuffed out like a wick, forgotten.”
That is what is meant when one says that God has such a poor
memory. He only sees and knows the person actually in front of him at this
moment. Says Isaiah in today’s First Reading:
Do not remember the former things
or consider the things of old.
Seeing the real person
In today’s Gospel story, Jesus saw a lonely, frightened woman, manipulated by
cruel, self-righteous men for their own sinister ends. He saw the potential for
change and he accepted her totally.
This was also the experience of Paul, once a zealous
Pharisee. Paul knew that God had forgiven his sin, the sin of persecuting the
disciples of Jesus (in the name of God and religion, it may be noted). Paul
realises now that it is not a question of becoming a morally perfect person by
his own efforts. For him to have a close relationship with Jesus is the most
precious thing in life. All the rest is just garbage. As a Pharisee he thought
he was a perfect person by keeping the Law meticulously and hating all those
who did not. Now he knows he is a good person because he has become filled with
the love of Jesus. Now he hates no one—he loves, he forgives and, like God, he
forgets.
We will find a great deal of happiness and peace in our
lives if, on the one hand, we can really grasp the attitude of God to the
sinner, and if, on the other, we can make that attitude our own in our
relationship with others.
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Sunday,
April 6, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your
Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them
to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the
Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events
of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all
hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.
Create in us silence so
that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events
and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so
that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of
your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as
source of fraternity, justice, and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of
Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading – John 8: 1-11
A Key to the Reading:
Today’s text leads us to a
meditation on the conflict between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees. Because
of his preaching and his manner of acting, the doctors of the law and the
Pharisees do not like Jesus. So they seek every possible way to accuse and
eliminate him. They bring before him a woman caught in adultery to ask him
whether they should observe the law that said that such a woman was to be
stoned. They wanted to provoke Jesus. By posing as people concerned for the
law, they were using the woman to argue with Jesus. The same story happens time
and time again. Under the pretense of concern for the law of God, the three
monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have condemned and
massacred many people. This goes on today too. Under the guise of concern for
the law of God, many people are deprived of communion and even excluded from
the community. Laws and customs are created to exclude and marginalize certain
categories of people. As we read John 8: 1-11, it is good to consider the text
as it were a mirror reflecting our own likeness. As we read, let us try to note
well the attitudes, words and action of those who appear in the story: the
Scribes, the Pharisees, the woman. Jesus and the people.
A division of the text as a help to the
reader:
•
Jn 8: 1-2: Jesus goes to the temple to teach the
crowd
•
Jn 8: 3-6a: His adversaries provoke him
•
Jn 8: 6b: Jesus’ reaction, he writes on the
ground
•
Jn 8: 7-8: Second provocation, and same reaction
from Jesus • Jn 8: 9-11:
Final epilogue Text:
1 and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At daybreak he
appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down
and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who
had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in the middle 4
they said to Jesus, 'Master, this woman was caught in the very act of
committing adultery, 5 and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of
this kind. What have you got to say?' 6 They asked him this as a test, looking
for an accusation to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing
on the ground with his finger. 7 As they persisted with their question, he
straightened up and said, 'Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first
to throw a stone at her.' 8 Then he bent down and continued writing on the
ground. 9 When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the
eldest, until the last one had gone and Jesus was left alone with the woman,
who remained in the middle. 10 Jesus again straightened up and said, 'Woman,
where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 11 'No one, sir,' she replied.
'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no
more.'
A Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten
our life.
Some Questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
•
What struck or pleased you most in this text?
Why?
•
Several persons and groups appear in this
episode. What do they say and do?
•
Try to step into the woman’s shoes: how did she
feel?
•
Why did Jesus begin to write with this finger on
the ground?
•
What can and must our community do to welcome
those excluded?
To Go Deeper Into the Theme
Literary Context:
Scholars say that John’s
Gospel grew gradually, that is, that it was written bit by bit. Over some time,
up to the end of the first century, members of John’s community in Asia Minor,
recalled and added details to events in Jesus’ life. One of these events, to
which some details were added, is our text, the episode concerning the woman
about to be stoned (Jn 8:1-11). A little before our text, Jesus had said:
"If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who
believes in me!” (Jn 7:37). This statement provoked much discussion (Jn
7:40-53). The Pharisees even ridiculed the people, considering them ignorant
for believing in Jesus. Nicodemus reacted saying: “Surely the law does not
allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a hearing and
discovering what he is about?” (Jn 7:51-52). After our text we come across
another statement by Jesus: "I am the light of the world!" (Jn 8:12),
which again provoked discussion among the Jews. The episode of the woman whom
the law would have condemned, but who is pardoned by Jesus (Jn 8:1-11), is
inserted between these two statements and their subsequent discussions. These
statements before and after, suggest that the episode was inserted here to shed
light on the fact that Jesus, light of the world, enlightens the life of people
and applies the law better than the Pharisees. A Commentary on the Text:
•
John 8:1-2: Jesus and the crowd
After the discussion reported at the end of chapter 7 (Jn
7: 37-52), all go home (Jn 7: 53). Jesus has no home in Jerusalem, so he goes
to the Mount of Olives. There he finds a garden where he can spend the night in
prayer (Jn 18: 1). The next day, before sunrise, Jesus is once more in the
temple. The crowd draws near to listen. Usually, the crowd sat in a circle
around Jesus when he taught. What would Jesus have been teaching? Whatever it
was, it must have been great because the crowd went there before dawn to listen
to him!
•
John 8: 3-6a: His enemies’ provocation
Suddenly, the Scribes and Pharisees arrive and bring with
them a woman caught in flagrant adultery. They place her in the middle of the
circle between Jesus and the crowd. According to the law, this woman had to be
stoned (Lv 20: 10; Dt 22: 22, 24). They ask: "Master, this woman was
caught in the very act of committing adultery, and in the Law Moses has ordered
us to stone women of this kind. What have you got to say?” This was a
provocation, a trap. If Jesus said: "Apply the law," the Scribes
would have said to the crowd: he is not as good as he appears to be because he
orders the woman to be killed. If Jesus said: "Do not kill her,” they
would have said: "He is not as good as he appears to be since he does not
observe the law!" Under the appearance of fidelity to God, they manipulate
the law and use a woman to accuse Jesus.
•
John 8: 6b: Jesus’ reaction: he writes on the
ground
This situation looked like a sure trap. But Jesus is
neither frightened nor nervous. Rather the opposite. Quietly, like one in
control of the situation, he bends down and begins to write on the ground with
his finger. What does writing on the ground mean? Some think that Jesus is writing
the sins of his accusers. Others say that it was just the sign of one who is in
control of the situation and pays no attention to the accusations made by
others. But it is possible that this may have been a symbolic action, an
allusion to something much more common. If you write a word on the ground, the
next morning it will be gone, swept away by wind or rain, gone! We find a
similar allusion in Jeremiah where we read that the names of the attributes of
God are written on the ground, that is, that they have no future. The wind and
the rain carry them away (cf Jr 17: 13). Perhaps Jesus is saying to those
around him: the sin of which you accuse this woman, has been forgiven by God as
I write these letters on the ground. From now on these sins will not be
remembered!
•
John 8: 7-8: Second provocation and the same
reaction from Jesus
Faced with this quiet attitude of Jesus, it is the
adversaries who become nervous. They insist and want to know Jesus’ opinion.
Jesus, then, stands up and says: "Let the one among you who is guiltless
be the first to throw a stone at her!" And bending down he again starts to
write on the ground. He does not engage in a sterile and useless discussion
concerning the law, because, in reality, the problem lies elsewhere. Jesus shifts
the centre of the discussion. Instead of allowing the light of the law to be
focussed on the woman so as to condemn her, he asks that his adversaries
examine themselves in the light of what the law demands of them. Jesus does not
discuss the letter of the law. He discusses and condemns the evil attitude of
those who manipulate people and the law to defend their own interests that are
contrary to God, the author of the law.
•
John 8: 9-11: Final epilogue: Jesus and the
woman
Jesus’ reply upsets the adversaries. The Pharisees and the
Scribes retreat shamefaced one by one “beginning with the eldest.” The opposite
of what they had planned happened. The one condemned by the law was not the
woman but those who believed themselves to be faithful to the law. Finally,
Jesus is left alone with the woman. Jesus stands up, goes to her and says:
"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you!" She answers:
"No one, sir!" Then Jesus says: "Neither do I condemn you. Go
away, and from this moment sin no more!" Jesus will not allow anyone to
use the law of God to condemn a brother or sister, when that person is also a
sinner. Anyone who has a plank in his eye cannot accuse the one who only has a
splinter in his. “Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then
you will see clearly to take out he splinter that is in your brother’s eye” (Lk
6: 42).
This episode, better than any other teaching, shows that
Jesus is the light of the world (Jn 11: 12) who reveals the truth. It brings to
light the hidden and most intimate things within a person. In the light of
Jesus’ words, those who seemed to be defenders of the law are revealed to be
full of sin. They recognize this and go away beginning with the eldest. And the
woman, thought to be guilty and meriting the death sentence, stands before
Jesus, absolved, redeemed, dignified (cf. Jn 3: 19-21). Jesus’ action gives her
new life and restores her dignity as woman and daughter of God.
Further Information
•
Laws
concerning women in the Old Testament and people’s reactions
From the time of Ezdra and Nehemiah, the official tendency
was to exclude women from any public activity and to consider them unsuitable
to carry out any function in society, except that of spouse and mother. What
contributed greatly to the marginalization of the woman was precisely the law
on purity. A woman was declared impure for being mother, spouse and daughter,
for being a woman. For being mother: in giving birth she became unclean (Lv 12:
1- 5). For being daughter: a son born made her unclean for forty days (Lv 12:
24); and worse, a daughter born made her unclean for 80 days! (Lv 12: 5). For
being spouse: sexual relationship made both the woman and the man unclean for a
whole day (Lv 15: 18). For being woman: menstruation made a woman unclean for a
whole week and rendered others unclean. Anyone who touched a woman during
menstruation had to go through a ritual of purification (Lv 15: 19-30). It was
not possible for a woman to hide her uncleanness, because the law obliged other
people to denounce her (Lv 5: 3). This legislation made daily life at home
unbearable. For seven days every month, the mother of a family could not rest
in bed or sit on a chair, much less touch her children or husband so as not to
contaminate them! This legislation was the result of a mentality, according to
which a woman was inferior to a man. There are some sayings that reveal this
discrimination against women (Eccl 42: 9-11; 22: 3). Marginalization became
such that women were considered to be the origin of sin and of death and the
cause of all evils (Eccl 25: 24; 42: 13-14). Thus the privilege and dominion of
man over woman kept on being preserved.
In the context of the times, the situation of women in the
world of the Bible was neither better nor worse than that of other people. It
was a general culture. Even today, there are many who continue in this same way
of thinking. But like today, so also previously, from the beginning of the
Bible history, there have always been those who opposed this exclusion of
women, especially after the exile, when foreign women, considered dangerous,
were expelled (cfr. Ez 9: 1-3 and 10: 1-3). Women’s resistance grew at times
when their marginalization was worst. In several wisdom books we discover the
voice of such resistance: the Canticle of Canticles, Ruth, Judith, Esther. In
these books, women appear not so much as mothers or spouses, but as persons who
could use their beauty and femininity to fight for the rights of the poor and
thus defend the Covenant of the people. These were fights not so much for the
temple, nor for abstract law, but for the life of the people.
The resistance of women against their exclusion finds an
echo and a response in Jesus. Here are some episodes of Jesus’ response towards
women:
•
The
prostitute: Jesus welcomes and defends her against the Pharisee (Lk 7:
36-50).
•
Jesus defends the woman bent double against the chief of the synagogue (Lk 13:10-17).
•
The woman considered impure is welcomed without criticism and is healed (Mk 5: 25-34).
•
The Samaritan woman, considered a heretic, is the first to receive Jesus’
secret that he is the Messiah (Jn 4: 26).
•
The pagan woman
is helped by Jesus and she helps him to discover his mission (Mk 7: 24- 30).
•
The mothers
with children, rejected by the disciples, are welcomed by Jesus (Mt 19:
13-15).
•
Women are the first persons to experience the
risen Jesus (Mt 28: 9-10; Jn 20: 16-18).
Praying Psalm 36 (35)
God’s Goodness Will Unmask Hypocrisy
Sin is the oracle of the wicked in
the depths of his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
He sees himself with too flattering
an eye to detect and detest his guilt; all he says is malicious and deceitful,
he has turned his back on wisdom.
To get his way he hatches malicious
plots even in his bed; once set on his evil course no wickedness is too much
for him.
Yahweh, your faithful love
is in the heavens, your constancy reaches to the clouds, your saving justice is
like towering mountains, your judgements like the mighty deep.
Yahweh, you support both man and
beast; how precious, God, is your faithful love.
So the children of Adam
take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your
house, you let them drink from your delicious streams; in you is the source of
life, by your light we see the light.
Maintain your faithful love to those
who acknowledge you, and your saving justice to the honest of heart.
Do not let the foot of the arrogant overtake me or wicked
hands drive me away. There they have fallen, the evildoers, flung down, never to rise again.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank for
the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May
your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that
which your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, your mother, not only
listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in
the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
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