Neither Do I Condemn You

04-03-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

This is the fifth Sunday of Lent, next Sunday will be Palm Sunday, the Sunday before we enter into the Holiest week of the year. The very last week in the earthly life of Jesus Christ during which He suffered, was crucified, died and rose from the dead. The church invites us to evaluate with sincerity our commitment to the Holy practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, knowing that God is always willing to forgive our unfaithfulness if we repent, even if it is at the eleventh hour.

In the Gospel passage this weekend, the Scribes and Pharisees came together to set a delicate trap for Jesus. This was towards the end of His earthly ministry. While He was in the Temple area in Jerusalem, they brought a woman to Him whom they accused of being caught in the very act of adultery, and after alluding to Moses’ doctrine on such matters, encouraged Jesus to freely express his Rabinic opinion. To Jesus, this was a poorly conceived and miserably disguised trap. If the woman was caught in the “very act of adultery” as they alleged, and if they were truly desirous of fair adjudication as they pretended to be, where was the man, the accomplice to whom Moses prescribed equal treatment? (confer Deuteronomy 22:22-25). This was the nature of the trap: if Jesus’ response was to condemn the woman to death, they would have had Him arrested by the imperial Roman authorities who reserved to themselves alone the authority to apply capital punishment. If, on the other hand, Jesus decided to excuse the woman’s sin, he would acquire some moral deficit and they would discredit Him before pious Jews as a false prophet who defies the law of Moses and is so unworthy of followership. They were confident that finally they had Jesus trapped in a corner ready to be dispensed.

The Divine Redeemer did not share in their vicious optimism. He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. Some Scripture scholars speculate that He wrote down their sins, other scholars opine that He wrote down the ten commandments. But when they persisted in demanding a verbal position from Him, Jesus demanded that any of them without sin should have the honor of being the first to cast the stone. In this manner, Jesus returned to them the responsibility of passing judgment. The oldest among them soon realized they would be arrested if they murdered the woman and that they would lose face among devout Jews if they declined strict execution of the law. They chose to walk away shamefully.

Left alone with the “defendant,” Jesus, the only sinless person with the moral authority to condemn anyone, told her “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” While He demonstrated compassion by forgiving her sin, Jesus ensured that she was exhorted to sin no more. God’s mercy does not negate His Holiness. The Lord is forgiving, but He would rather we stay out of sin. While we ought to hasten towards forgiveness, we should never neglect fraternal correction.

May we receive grace never to put the life, integrity or livelihood of others on the line just to prove a point. May we also be aided not just to repent and ask for forgiveness but also to do battle to the “seeds” of sin in our hearts and so decisively overcome Satan in our lives.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh