Our People

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Year C

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
25/3/2007

“If there is one of you who has not sinned let him be the first to throw a stone” (John 8:7).

Thus, was the Lord’s response to those who had brought before him the woman caught in adultery.

But surely those scribes and Pharisees were right in what they were doing! The Book of Deuteronomy (22:23) decreed stoning for a betrothed woman who had committed adultery, but for an adulterous wife Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22 prescribed death without specifying the manner of execution. They were simply applying the law as they knew it.

No society can function without law. A society needs law and its penalties to protect and safeguard its citizens. The Jewish people had not a secular structure of law but one which finds its origin in God himself. The sixth commandment is clear: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). That commandment was clearly to protect the sanctity of marriage.

The woman had broken a commandment. The law, given not just on the statute books, but in the very Word of God, demanded a penalty. The law must be carried out!

Is the response of the Lord to, in fact, challenge the validity of the precepts of the law? Is he proposing that the law is unjust and should be changed?

The issue of place of law in one’s religious life was one of the principal themes in the preaching and practice of Christ. Often he came into conflict with those who maintained a strict adherence to the law – the issue of healing on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9), the Lord telling the healed blind man to pick up his mat on the Sabbath (John 5:8-9), are two among many examples.

In the response to of the Lord to the situation there is no accommodation to the sin of the woman. He tells her, “Don’t sin any more” (John 8:11). The Lord taught quite clearly: “I have not come to abolish the law but to complete it” (Matthew 5:17).

Prior to this he says to her, “Neither do I condemn you”. The fact of the sin is acknowledged but the Lord is move to forgiveness. The woman is not condemned, but granted forgiveness.

My brothers, seminarians and those considering a vocation to the priesthood, we are to be as priests instruments of the forgiveness of God, especially through the Sacrament of Penance.

Forgiveness does not mean the accommodation of sin. It is a false approach to forgiveness to deny or excuse the sin. Sin must be acknowledged and an attitude of genuine contrition sought.

We do a grave disservice if we minimise sin. But we are to be faithful agents of the mercy of God who desires the sinner to be saved. The Lord, in his teaching, urged his hearers to grasp the significance of the words, “What I want is mercy not sacrifice” (Matthew 12:7).
 
A priest is a dispenser of the mercy of God. Our sacramental actions draw us close to the heart of God. As we hear people opening their conscience and revealing, often with deep humility, their struggles and failings, we are drawn to see what the Lord sees: not just the cold action, but the inner depths of the heart.

A priest is privileged to be taken into the deep recesses of the human condition and witness there a struggle: good intentions and genuine desire for goodness and holiness, battling with weakness, flaws of character and the incessant burden of temptation.

A priest leaves the confessional humbled, with a sense of profound privilege to have been caught up in the drama of redemption worked out in the life of individual believers.

One comes to know that mercy is indeed the great characteristic of God. God is a god, slow to anger and rich in mercy, as the Scriptures reveal (Psalm 103:8).

In the end each of us relies totally on the mercy of God. We can look honestly within ourselves and know our own darkness and frailty. We can never justify ourselves before God.

When we pass from this life and meet the Lord, what can we say for our lives? Can we fearlessly parade our good deeds, our achievements, our triumphs, even the dedicated service of our lives? No.

There can only be one prayer on our lips: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Realising this, should not we seek to express some mercy towards others during our pilgrimage on earth. We see the external actions of others. We can easily stand in judgement, and condemn them. We can even harbour deep feelings of retribution. They should be punished. They are at fault. They have sinned. They deserve to be punished.

We don’t know what is on the inside: what dark struggle is being fought within the person.

We never dismiss the reality of the sin, but our heart is characterised by mercy for the sinner. We do not stand by and judge and condemn. When there is an opportunity our hearts are moved by compassion.

The Church is the society of the forgiven. The Church must faithfully proclaim moral truth and never water it down, but the life of the Church, following the example of the Master, should be characterised by the exercise of mercy. 

“If there is one of you who has not sinned let him be the first to throw a stone”.