As we approach the holiest time of the year, we are afforded the opportunity to realize how transformative God is. Again and again, God has transformed the world and the human race, never as much as when raising Jesus from the dead. But God also transforms us individually in baptism when we are given new birth in Christ; in reconciliation, when we receive forgiveness; in the Eucharist, when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ; and day in and day out in our complicated lives. Transformation means dying to something old in order to make something new.
In our Gospel, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They plan to stone her based on the commandment presented by Moses to the people on a pair of stone tablets. Stone is hard, dense, and unyielding, anchored in their sense of justice. Jesus pointed to a better way. He did so by writing on the ground. We really don’t know what he wrote. Scholars speculate, “Where is the man?” or “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” or “Judge not lest be judged.” His verbal response was, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Instead of chiseled in stone, his words, traced in the dirt, were unsubstantial and erasable. The dirt recalls the ashes applied to our foreheads a month ago, a fleeting reminder of our sinfulness, easily washed away. Jesus’ gift of forgiveness washes away her sin. Meanwhile, the dirt, the earth, would eventually reabsorb the stones of the crowd.
Each of us is a sinner. The good news proclaimed this day is that God’s love and mercy are greater then any sin we can imagine. Jesus’ response to our sins is the same one given to the woman. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on do not sin anymore.”
Love, Peace, Joy,
-Fr. Bob
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