Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons 13th March 2016

Christ and the woman taken in adultery - Hans Bruegel

Fifth Sunday of Lent

In his homily on the woman taken in adultery (Jn 8:1-11), Augustine gives us an enduring image of two figures, the woman and Jesus left alone after the confrontation with the Scribes and Pharisees: 'The two were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy.' That poignant phrase, more hauntingly evocative in the Latin, misera et misericordia dramatically frames our own position with Jesus, for in our Christian life, in those moments alone with him, we too can only be like the unknown women, aware of the gaps in the goodness of our lives, those dark spots of sin and trial, those places where mercy and compassion needs to heal the hurts!

Whilst scholars acknowledge that the story of the women taken in adultery was a late addition to John's Gospel, it has always been accepted by the Catholic Church as one of those true events in the life of Jesus, part of the living tradition of faith, and a story with a profound message. In many ways it is a shadowy story with many parts, but we can grasp its essence.

'Mercy', God revealed in Jesus, does not punish or condemn but reconciles the sinner, whilst telling her to go and 'sin no more' and in doing so challenges those who have condemned her to acknowledge that they too are sinners 'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.' Jesus lets the trap set for him snap shut on those who laid it, they are the unjust, inconsistent ones, after all where is the man involved who should also face the penalty?

In the Gospel of Barnabas the author makes Jesus form a mirror on the ground where everyone saw their own iniquities, whatever happened in that act of writing in the dust, earth accuses earth, 'terra terram accusat' ! Jesus fulfils the words of Jeremiah's prayer: LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water. (Jer 17:18) |

The accusers are shown up for what they are, they belong in that dust of death, but if they accept the mercy offered, as the woman does, they too will rise with Christ.

It is a beautiful tale, one which draws us to identify with the need for redemptive love in our own lives, perhaps we can make the second part of Jeremiah's prayer our own, where our miseria meets Christs' misericordia !

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. (Jer 17:14)

Fr Robin is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain. He is also an Honorary Canon of Christchurch Cathedral Oxford.