Being Freed

  In today’s Gospel we have a magnificent story of the mercy of Jesus as he forgives the woman taken in adultery. It is interesting to note that the story is missing from the earliest manuscripts of John’s Gospel. Some scholars argue that the delay in accepting the story as part of the Gospel reflects the difficulty many people had in the in the ease with which Jesus lets the woman off the hook, an easiness which was totally at odds with the strict penitential practices of the early Church. If this is true, it reflects an old problem many people had with Jesus and many people have with God: really believing to what Graham Greene has called ‘’the awful strangeness of God’s mercy’’ Does God forgive as easily as that?

In the Gospel story the woman is caught committing adultery. If it takes two to tango, it takes two to commit adultery, but the man seems to have had ready access to an emergency exit, leaving the woman in the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. These men know the Law of Moses which stated: ‘’If a man is caught sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die, the man who has slept with her and the woman herself. You must banish this evil from Israel’’ (Deuteronomy 22:22). The scribes and Pharisees are zealous about the execution of the Law, which means the execution of the woman. They are in the moral majority, for they clearly have the Law on their side. Thus armed, they come to tackle Jesus on the issue.

  Jesus’ reaction to all the fuss is to start writing on the ground. But his questioners persist, and Jesus responds not by taking issue with the law but by taking issue with the lawyers. When you remember the law but forget what the law is for, perhaps your memory is a little selective. Jesus seems to think that all victims can do with some form of allegiance, and he refuses to join this moral majority. Jesus does not say the woman is innocent or argue that adultery should be taken off the books; but neither is he persuaded about the innocence of her accusers. He asks them to exercise their memories and check their own track record on sin. If any are innocent, they can throw stones. And while they’re all having a good think, running their own home videos in their heads, Jesus goes back to his writing.

  At least the woman’s accusers are honest people, for they readily recognize that they are not innocent accusers. So, the procession of unemployed executioners is led away by the eldest - who is no doubt giving the example of necessity! Of course, Jesus doesn’t want them just to walk away but to exercise their forgiveness too. Jesus and the woman are left alone. As St Augustine described it poetically, ‘’two are left: misery and mercy.’’ And the woman hears good news from Jesus: ‘’Neither do I condemn you…. go away, and don’t sin anymore.”

When we see that Gospel scene, we can all imagine ourselves in the place of the woman caught in adultery, and probably have no trouble filling in the faces of our accusers who are ready to heave a stone or two in our direction. But that scenario is too easy. The challenge of the Gospel is whether we can see ourselves not the woman who is caught in adultery, but as the man who is caught up in forgiveness. Can we forgive as readily as Jesus forgives? Or do we dote on people’s wrongdoing, reminding them of past failures, and lighting vigil lamps to their mistakes? Can we forgive and leave it?

  We spend time wondering whether God can really forgive without hoarding the hurt. God’s track record on forgiveness is clear: God’s had lots of practice and God is good at it. How about our track record?