The Adulterous Woman

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Tomorrow I am the "prayer leader" for RCIA and thus it is my job to discuss next Sunday's scriptures. I've posted a few of my reflections in the past, but usually after the talk. I'm posting this one a little early, and I am covering only the Gospel. The readings for this Sunday are Cycle C and can be found at the USCCB website. (linked)
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We really haven’t done a lot to address moral theology, the foundation of which is human dignity, and I think this Gospel does a lot to help us break into that a little bit. We can easily place ourselves in this woman’s position and through that, come to see who Jesus is and what he does for each and every one of us, and that is not just to give us life, but to restore our dignity which is compromised by our fallen nature.

Human dignity is a very misunderstood term; there’s a great number of wishy-washy terms out there that I certainly would not want applied to me. If you read some of them you’d agree. (The Wickipedia definition is especially bad).

All of us have inherent dignity by virtue of the fact that we are created in God’s image and likeness, and we are the only creatures He created entirely for Himself. We are adopted sons and daughters of God, created especially for eternal union with Him. God also gave us free will which is the foundation of dignity, and he will not contradict our dignity by interfering with our free will, but rather, speaks to us through our conscience so that we can turn from our sin and willingly return to His grace. Conscience must therefore be formed, and this takes a lifetime, but it also is an integral part of both our freedom and dignity; we are the only creation of God that has the ability to consciously and willfully overcome our compulsions and propensities in order to choose the good (God), over evil.

When we sin, we reject God's love. Sin can be defined as both a rejection of God's love and an abuse of freedom. God wants to restore us to our original dignity that we had prior to the fall from grace, but he cannot contradict himself or compromise our free will by forcing us to do anything. He will not take control of us; he will only invite and allow us to accept or decline his invitation.

We have to understand that God is love, and the union He desires to have with us involves a true definition of love, which is self-effacing, completely giving, holding nothing back. When we sin, we are rejecting God’s love and we are abusing our free will. God gave us the ability to overcome our willful rejection and cooperate in the restoration of our unity with him. This is true dignity.

In this Gospel, the Pharisees are dragging the adulterous woman to Jesus, claiming they caught her in the act of adultery and by law she must be stoned to death. But we see by their actions that she is just a pawn and her life means nothing to them; they are using her as an object in order to try to trap Jesus. Note the fact that the other party in her sin is not there; the Pharisees are citing the Law of Moses in their little game, but the Law of Moses called for both parties in adultery to be stoned.

Jesus bends down and writes on the ground. This is the only time in the Bible where Jesus wrote anything and it doesn’t say what he wrote. I learned from Father the other day that some traditions have indicated that Jesus was writing down the sins of those who were standing there, but there’s something more to the act for those with the eyes to see - if any of them did. The very finger Jesus was using to write in the dirt was the very same finger that wrote the Commandments - the Law of Moses -on the stone tablets!

Each one of the accusers leaves, so the woman is left alone with Jesus, and he does not condemn her.

Pay attention to this because it’s very revealing; what did Jesus do? What was he doing throughout this story?

He stood between the woman and death.

He defended her from what had been termed “just judgment” under the Law of Moses. He offered her MERCY.

This woman, in her commission of adultery, was rejecting God’s love and was doing what so many people do today; they seek false love from pleasures of this world which only lead to death. The woman is dragged, without her co-sinner, to be used only as a pawn. By the time she gets to Jesus, she is already aware she is condemned; she knows the Law. She has no dignity left and no one even recognizes the value of her life.

Jesus intervenes, and through him, she is saved, her dignity restored; in part. But Jesus shows us something more; she has a part to play, too. She has to cooperate by accepting God’s love and returning it; and she can do this through the simple admonition given to her: Go and do not sin anymore.

In other words, if she is going to accept God’s love, she has to recognize her sin for what it is and instead of embracing what only leads to death, she must recognize her inherent dignity, overcome what pulls her down, and accept the hand of Jesus which will lead her only to life.

We are all in that place; we all have to recognize the dignity that God gave us, recognize ourselves in the adulterous woman, and recognize who stands between us and death. Jesus is calling all of us to come to him, to overcome our abuses and misunderstanding of freedom, and to accept his love by returning it fully. We can only do that if we are willing to reject those things that pull us away from God. He will help us overcome everything if we will only allow him to do so and take his words to heart;

Go, and do not sin anymore.