Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Isaiah 43:16–21
Psalm 126:1–2, 2–3, 4–5, 6
Philippians 3:8–14
John 8:1–11
Pope Francis has called us to live Lent as pilgrims, journeying together in Hope. The journey through the events of this world, especially our own divided culture, has been rough. We all have to admit this if we have any hope of reaching our goal. Many ti mes, we feel that we are pushed into a corner having to make a judgment about people who have been in the public eye.
The Gospel of the woman caught in adultery shows us an example of Jesus being caught in a similar trap. If He judges against her, then His talk of Mercy means nothing, even as it shows a letter-bound adherence to the Mosaic law. If He fails to judge against her and simply lets her go, then He is declared one who fails to follow the way of God and His commandments. The first response Jesus makes is silence. He is going to allow the situation to play out and to reveal the hypocrisy of the woman’s accusers.
Jesus writes on the ground. What does He write? John does not tell us. Varied commentators have offered suggestions. Some say He wrote the sins of those who were trying to trap Him. Note, however, that if He is writing the list of sins, He is writing on the dust of the ground, which will be wiped away. Others have connected this act with the hand that appeared in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5, when Belshazzar, the successor of Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered Jerusalem and Judah, made use of the sacred vessels of the Temple in a pagan ritual: “Mene Mene, Tekel Uparsin.” Daniel read this for the king, prophesying the judgment that would fall on him and his nation. Whatever is being written, it is a declaration of a way of judging that is new.
Jesus says simply: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He gives them the power to judge themselves and perhaps to perjure themselves by the very act of judgment. Understanding this, they walk away. Then Jesus offers Mercy but calls for a conversion on the part of the woman, as well as from those who have condemned her, and walked away.
When we feel that we are constrained by the spirit of the age, by the peer pressure that we experience at every stage of our lives, we must look again and make the judgment that it does not belong to us to judge based on appearances. Isaiah’s prophecy points to this divine power, speaking of the God of Israel “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.” There is a way for us through the mess.
God speaks: “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. … ” Mercy, along with judgment and justice, is God’s way. From God’s perspective, all of us share in the guilt about “the way things are.” All of us must be reconciled and live a new life.
Putting our trust in God’s mercy, we can find a way, remembering also that we must change our own ways. Lent is a journey of conversion. We walk this journey together, in Hope.
Alternate readings for the Third Scrutiny, Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A:
Ezekiel 37:14-14
Psalm 130: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Romans 85:8-11
John 11:1-45
Year A readings, used at Masses when the Third Scrutiny is prayed over the members of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (O.C.I.A.), highlight the power of Christ over life and death and the invitation to new life in Christ for all of us, both individually and as God’s people. We are called to faith in Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life. He brings us to new life.