“Then
Jesus straightened up and said to her, Women, 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.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
In today’s Gospel we see
today a very human Jesus. In This Story there are no miracles, no ground
shaking, and no thunderous proclamations from the heavens. Here we have Jesus, a
crowd of angry protesters, and a sinner. Oh, wait! There all sinners! Even
though the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, no one could over look
their sins and condemn the woman who allegedly was caught in the very act of
adultery. Forgiveness to the women is not explicitly expressed, but
condemnation is most certainly withheld. In John 3: 17, “For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.” Jesus did not forgive the women of her sins, for he never judged
her in first place. He saw in her the love of his father, the love from where
all things were created.
Our Christ
understands that we are imperfect. He knows that we will sin again. And yet
with this knowledge we are not judged, we are instead offered compassion and
the opportunity to keep trying. We are given an opportunity to keep trying to
follow this new law of love. To not only to offer forgiveness, but to not even
condemn another person for their transgressions. This was, and perhaps still
is, a foreign ideal for us as humans.
We are
a society fully engaged in a system of legalese; nevertheless we should not
confuse civil law with this law of love and this example of personal love. Our
Christ came to save the sinner, for the truly righteous does not need to be
shown the way. How many of us are truly
righteous? Could you throw the first stone? Let us stop judging and condemning
each other and begin living the life our Christ has shown us.
Scripture is from the
NABRE
by David E. Gonzales
No comments:
Post a Comment