Over the past two Sundays we have considered Jesus’ call for repentance and reconciliation. Today’s gospel message focuses on forgiveness: God’s forgiveness of us and our responsibility to forgive each other. Repentance and reconciliation without forgiveness is incomplete.
In today’s gospel, John 8:1-11, Jesus confronts two guilty parties: the woman caught in adultery and the judgmental scribes and Pharisees who accuse her. Jesus did not condemn the woman nor did he condemn the scribes and Pharisees. He merely confronted the accusers with their own sinfulness. There is a lot of speculation about what Jesus wrote in the sand. The fact is, we don’t know and we will never know. What we do know is that somehow Jesus turned a potentially volatile situation into a moment of grace.
This grace is not cheap. There is still the expectation of total and complete conversion. Although Jesus does not condemn the woman, he does say, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” The challenge Jesus gave to the woman he gives to us, “from now on do not sin anymore.” While this challenge might seem impossible, St. Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:13-14, that God the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus “delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Because God forgives our sins, our duty, like St. Paul’s in today’s second reading is to put the past behind us and strive for what lies ahead “the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”
Infinite is your compassion, O God,
to every sinner who stands before you.
Grant that we,
who have been forgiven so much,
may embrace as sisters and brothers
every sinner who joins us at this feast of forgiveness.
We ask this through Christ,
our peace and reconciliation,
the Lord who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
AMEN.
