Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent

April 6, 2025

My dear brothers and sisters, the gospel reading of today on the woman caught in the act of adultery invites us to reflect on the compassion and mercy of God as contrasted with human wickedness. Objectively, the action of the woman was bad, true, the law of Moses had such legislation. We read in the book of Leviticus 20:10, “if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death,” however, more depraved was the evil intention of these Scribes and Pharisees.

These blood-thirsty vampires weren’t concerned about law and order in the society, instead, they were determined to get rid of Jesus by all means and they never cared a dime if this woman became an unfortunate victim of their evil agenda. The entire set-up of their accusation even betrayed their shamelessness and insincerity. In the sin of adultery, it usually takes two to tango, but here were these heartless fellows demanding for a death sentence on a woman and then hiding her accomplice. The action of these Scribes and Pharisees sounds a caveat to us all on the danger taking a person as a thing. They saw this woman not as a human being but as an instrument, a tool, a thing for their own purposes. For them, she has no name, no personality, no feeling, she was simply a pawn in the game whereby they sought to destroy Jesus. One author once wrote that the minute people become things and tools, the spirit of Christianity is dead.

These Scribes and Pharisees claimed to possess a legitimate authority over the people, but their understanding of authority was simply outrageous. They thought that their so-called authority had given them the right to be moral watchdogs trained to tear the sinner into pieces with savage and unforgiving punishment not even minding whether the stench of their own polluted lives stank more. This is another warning to all of us in the different positions of authority whether as parents, grandparents, teachers, boss, co-worker. Authority should be founded on sympathy; our correction should be geared towards healing the wrongdoer and not to drive him or her to despair and resentment. The function of authority is not to banish and wipe out all perceived and imagined ne’er-do-wells in our society, instead it is to make them good citizens.

In Jesus’ judgment of the woman, we see a total opposite to the cruelty of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus did not forgive the woman lightly and easily as if sin did not matter, It was even the heart of Jesus that the sin of woman wounded more and not the sanctimonious Scribes and Pharisees, yet Jesus first saw her as a human being who had a human dignity. Jesus believes in our human nature, that with sincere efforts and grace of God, we can improve. Jesus saw the woman as a potential saint. In Jesus, there is the gospel of second chance, He gave her a second chance and confronted her with the challenge of a sinless life. These self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees wanted to stone her and condemn her to rot in hell fire, but Jesus forgave her and showed her a way to transform and become a saint in heaven. Brothers and sisters, we are called to emulate Jesus in our interpersonal relationship. We are called to judge like Jesus in our dealings with others.

This story is a challenge to us all on how we can be true Christians to men and women trapped in a similar plight like the woman caught in the act of adultery. Belonging to this category are women abandoned with unwanted pregnancy when the child’s father is unwilling to take responsibility, single mums and unwed mothers in our society, those whose marital relations turned sour because of a challenge beyond their control, those who desire and long for a life partner but unfortunately nobody is interested in them, those who their physical deformity condemns to a celibate life against their choice, men or women accused falsely of sexual molestation by others for some ulterior motives or even by pure misunderstanding etc.

Most times people in these and similar situations are forced to wade through their agonizing and traumatizing life journey sorrowfully. Sometimes they are forced to make terrible and harmful decisions. Do they see us Christians as people whose hands are filled with stones to compound their problems, or do they see us as little Christ ready to show them a way that life is worth living.