Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. During the first four weeks of Lent, we followed Jesus from the dessert to a mountaintop. We walked with him as he taught his disciples, his followers, the scribes, the Pharisees and us about repentance and reconciliation. Today we listen as Jesus faces another challenge and teaches us about forgiveness. In our gospel, John 8:1-11, Jesus is in Jerusalem teaching near the Temple. The scribes and the Pharisees attempt to "test" Jesus "so that they could have some charge to bring against him." They bring him a woman caught in adultery asking what do you say we should we do with her. According to the Law of Moses, women caught in the act of adultery should be stoned to death. However, under Roman law the Jewish people could not execute anyone. They did not have the authority to do so. If Jesus agreed that the woman should be killed, he violates Roman law. If he said she should not be killed he violates the Law of Moses.
Rather than step into the trap, Jesus did something totally unexpected. He made no attempt to answer the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus simply wrote some words on the ground and he confronted the scribes and Pharisees with their own sinfulness saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). He did not condemn the woman nor did he condemn her accusers. To their credit, the scribes and Pharisees did not continue their pursuit of retribution and retaliation; "they went away one by one, beginning with the elders" (John 8:9). Jesus then told the woman to "go, (and) from now on do not sin any more" (John 8:11). By his actions, Jesus turned a potentially violent confrontation into a grace-filled lesson about the power of God's mercy and forgiveness.
The woman in this gospel account had her sins forgiven by Jesus Christ. We gain forgiveness through the redeeming death of Christ whose blood was "shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:28). The forgiveness we receive carries a great deal of responsibility. One of the foremost duties of every Christians is to forgive one another from our hearts (Matthew 18:21-35). Over and over in the gospels, Jesus teaches that each of us must "forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions" (Mark 11:25). When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask God, our Father, to "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Not only must we forgive in order to be forgiven ourselves, God asks us to forget whatever wrongs people have committed against us so we can move forward into the Kingdom. In today's first reading, the Lord, speaking through the Prophet Isaiah says, "Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new!" (Isaiah 43:18-19). A few verses later the Lord tells us “Your sins I remember no more" (Isaiah 43:25). And St. Paul carries on this theme in our second reading when he tells the Philippians, “Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Our goal is to reach the Kingdom of God. Let us pray for the grace to forgive and forget so that we can achieve our goal in heaven.
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.
