Fr. Gerard Kelly
As we were listening to the Gospel it
struck me that we probably don’t fully appreciate what was going on with this
attempt to stone the woman. If we pause
and think about it, stoning is an incredibly violent act. It is not something that we are used to in
our society, even if there are still some societies in the world where adulterers
are punished by stoning. We, of course, like
to think of ourselves as being far more civilised than that. Yet, while we don’t practise stoning, there
are examples of violence and brutality inflicted on others, particularly women,
in anger or even punishment. There are
cases regularly in our courts. We hear
of violence in our news broadcasts, and we even see images of violence in
movies and TV shows – scenes of someone hitting another person or bashing them,
or throwing objects. Is throwing an
object at someone much different than throwing stones at them?
What is it that makes this sort of
response possible among people? There
are probably many ways to interpret this, but two things might be relevant for
our reflections during Lent. In the
first place, there is a question of punishment for wrong-doing. There are public debates around the issue of
whether punishment should help a person reform their lives, or whether it is
simply a matter of retribution on behalf of the person who has been
wronged. In the Gospel the desire of the
crowd to stone the woman was clearly a case of retribution. Stoning was meant to be final: the person was
an embarrassment to her own family and to the community, so the best way to
deal with this was to eliminate her from the community. There was no option of being
rehabilitated.
The second thing that strikes me about
violent responses is that they also point to a deep seated anger in those who
carry out the violence. These people
lack a sense of peace in their lives.
Perhaps they are even using the victim of violence as a scapegoat for
their own failures. This too seems to be
at play in the gospel. Jesus says to the
crowd, let the one who is without sin throw the first stone. One by one they leave the scene. As we think about it, Jesus has made them
reflect on what they are doing by wanting to stone this woman. He challenges them to change their focus away
from the sin of this woman and to examine their own lives and recognise their
own sin. It is as though the desire of
wanting to stone the woman was simply a mechanism for avoiding their own
sin. Perhaps they wanted her to bear the
punishment for their own sin. They are
not people who are at peace with themselves or with others.
In the face of these types of
responses, it is important to see what Jesus does. The first thing we should notice is that
Jesus – precisely because of his own goodness – exposes sin. In the case of the crowds, he made them
realise that they were not without sin.
In the case of the woman her sin was obvious to everyone. But Jesus exposing sin is not a witch hunt;
he doesn’t gloat and point the finger.
The second thing to note is how he deals with sin. In this he differs from those around
him. He is not seeking revenge; he
doesn’t act out of anger. The crowd
around him saw sin as a dead end; they saw the woman as being unredeemable, as
having no future. She probably even saw
herself that way. With all the
embarrassment that she must have felt she would have wondered if she could ever
walk down the street again without incurring the ridicule of others. To recognise sin was to be in a hopeless
place.
Jesus deals with it differently. He offered her a future with a respectable
life. Does no one condemn you, he
asks. Neither do I condemn you. Condemnation wouldn’t change anything. Jesus tells her to go and sin no more. She encounters the mercy of God, raising her
up to new life. This is a new creation. Jesus has given people a new image of
God. They saw in Jesus what the mercy of
God looks like. They were meant to learn
that God desires life not death for all people.
Nothing need ultimately separate someone from the love of God.
We shouldn’t underestimate how
difficult it is to hold on to this view of God.
At one level, there is not much in the modern social climate that gives
room for the redemption of sinners. Our
society wants everyone and everything to be perfect. There is shock if someone is exposed as a
sinner. Jesus is saying that these
people – the sinners – have an opportunity to change because of the mercy of
God. At a more personal level: all of
us, I am sure, like to put our best face on display. Even when it comes to God, we might imagine
ourselves entertaining God by putting out the best silverware or the best cups
and saucers. Yet the woman in the gospel
today had no such treasures to put out when she encountered God. Rather, she was wounded; the silver was
tarnished. The image of God, in which
she was created, was hardly visible. But
what she learnt was that God is interested in polishing that image so that it
might reveal God’s glory more clearly.
And this is what we do during Lent!
