St. John Paul II Parish, Cedar Springs, Michigan

Mary Queen of Apostles Parish, Sand Lake, Michigan

Father Lam T. Le, Pastor

April 6, 2025

“Go, and from now on do not sin anymore”

(Jn 8:11)

Last Sunday we heard hearing the masterpiece of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke.  Today, the fifth Sunday of Lent, we continue to proclaim the mercy of God in the story of the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel of John.

To understand the viciousness of the trap that the scribes and the Pharisees set before the Lord, we need to visit this text of the Old Testament:” If a man is discovered lying with a woman who is married to another, they both shall die, the man who was lying with the woman as well as the woman” (Dt 22:22).  The scribes and the Pharisees use this instruction to set up one side of the trap for Jesus: “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say” (Jn 8:5)?  To say, “no” to the stoning, then the Lord would seem to go against Moses.  To say “yes,” Jesus would be in trouble with the Roman authorities. In the Roman provincial rule, only the Roman prefect had the authority to declare capital punishment. Recalling in the Passion of the Lord According to John, the accusers had this admission: “We do not have the right to execute anyone” (Jn 18:31).

Before the heartless trap, Jesus introduced what we all need: forgiveness.  This gift came from the Cross and gives humanity a heart as the Preface I of the Passion of the Lord in the Roman Missal which the Church prays at Mass on this fifth week of Lent: “. . . through the saving Passion of your Son the whole world has received a heart to confess the infinite power of majesty, since by the wondrous power of the Cross your judgement on the word is now revealed and the authority of Christ crucified.”

When Jesus said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7) he reframed the issue by calling attention to the accusers’ own sinfulness. First, Deuteronomy 22:22 speaks of punishment for both the man and the woman who get caught in adultery and therefore, where is the man in all of this?  Could he be one of the accusers? Remember they said to Jesus “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery” (Jn 8:4). Because Jesus exposed their hypocrisies and their need for repentance, “they went away one by one, beginning with the elders” (Jn 8:9).

The final words of Jesus to the woman are so beautiful: “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (Jn 8:11).  The Lord did not indicate that what she did was okay.  Instead, He offered her a fresh start by turning away from sin and opening to God’s infinite mercy.  This is our Lent: a fresh start by turning from sin and gazing upon God’s face.  May what happened to the woman in the Gospel today is happening to all of us, the people of God during Lent who longs for His merciful love. Amen.

Scriptural Readings: Reading I Is 43:16-21; Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.; Reading II Phil 3:8-14;Verse before the Gospel Jl 2:12-13; Gospel Jn 8:1-11