Christ the Cornerstone
As Jesus forgives our sins, he also calls us to unite with God
In the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the scribes and the Pharisees bring an adulterous woman to Jesus and make her stand in the middle of the crowd that has gathered around him. Their motives are not righteous. They are using her to trap Jesus.
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery,” they say. “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” (Jn 8:4-5)
Jesus says nothing. Instead, he bends down and begins to write in the dust with his finger. We do not know what he was writing, but whatever it was, it clearly made the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees uncomfortable.
When they persist in asking him to judge the woman, Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). The Lord holds up a mirror to these self-righteous men so they can see themselves as they really are—sinners. Presumably, they do not want their sins exposed. And, as a result, “they went away one by one, beginning with the elders” (Jn 8:9).
Then, when he is left alone with the woman, Jesus straightens up and says to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replies, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (Jn 8:10-11).
We are all sinners. We are all guilty of thoughts, feelings and actions that separate us from communion with God and with our sisters and brothers in Christ. The Lord knows this, but he still loves us. He forgives us and invites us to repent and to renew our relationship with him.
There is no suggestion in this story, or anywhere in the Gospels, that Jesus is permissive or “soft” when it comes to confronting the reality of sin. His teachings are clear and unequivocal. Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him, and our Lord’s burning desire is that every person he encounters be united with God and each other. He does not condemn us sinners. He makes it clear that he has come into the world for us and for our salvation. And so, to each of us in our own ways he says, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (Jn 8:11).
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
During his public life, Jesus not only forgave sins but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the people of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God’s forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the people of God. (#1443)
We do not know whether the unnamed woman in this story ever ate or drank with Jesus, but we know for certain that she would have been welcome. Even the hypocrites who were the objects of our Lord’s most stern and unrelenting criticism would have been welcomed by him if they had repented and promised to sin no more.
To say this has become something of a cliché, but Jesus loves sinners, not their sins. The distinction is important because of the fact that we are all sinners. If Jesus had condemned the adulterous woman, then in fairness he would also have to condemn the scribes and Pharisees who accused her, all the people in the crowd, and all of us. It’s a simple fact that we are all sinners, but the astonishing thing is that we are all called to repent, receive God’s forgiveness, change our lives, and become saints!
Pope Francis repeatedly reminds us that everyone, the pope included, is a sinner. We should acknowledge this humbly and seek God’s forgiveness which is readily available to us in the sacrament of penance. What Jesus detests is hypocrisy—the refusal to admit that we are sinners and our insistence on judging others, condemning other people for their sins. Jesus loves and forgives us. But he asks us to admit that we are sinners and to forgive others as God has forgiven us.
This Lent, let’s acknowledge our sinfulness and ask God’s forgiveness. He will not refuse us. And let’s examine our consciences to identify those attitudes and actions of ours that are hypocritical. Do we judge others harshly while failing to acknowledge our own sins? If so, let’s ask God for the grace to repent, to change our self-righteous attitudes, and to forgive others in Jesus’ name. †