FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (John 8:1 – 11)
After the accusers, the Pharisees leave, the woman stands alone in front of Jesus. He asks her: “Woman, where are they ? Has no one condemned you ?” Jesus knew the answer to His question, yet, He likes to ask to give her for a very good reason. Every word and action of Jesus has a reason behind it. Yes, He wanted her to answer, to declare a very important fact: “No, Lord, no one has condemned me.”

That declaration by the woman herself was intended to put her at peace with herself, a self-realisation. She must have felt a great sense of relief, she was spared from stoning and death. Then it was jesus’ turn to underline, to stress the fact: “Neither do I condemn you.” We can just imagine what went through the woman’s heart and mind, into her whole being. Though we do not find anything in the Gospel about her reaction, but we may suppose that she must have thanked God for this lcky escape from the hands of her accusers.

A greater relief came to this woman when Jesus continued: “Go, and do not sin again.” That was the climax, the heart of the matter. She must have realized that that Rabbi, that teacher must have been a great Rabbi, so different from all the others, for He has shown mercy, love and forgiveness. This must have been a very deep meeting.

If Jesus saw and loved the rich, young man who was too wealthy to follow Jesus, likewise He loved and pitied that woman. St. Augustine describes this meeting of the woman with Jesus and the resulting effect, he says that the woman had received ‘spiritual kiss’ of mercy and forgiveness from Jesus.

When He looked at her and told her: “Go, and do not sin again”, Jesus, as her Liberator, created a spiritual relationship with her. She must have loved Him for saving her and goes away as a new person. She was born again. She became a different person with anew force in her being. She will not sin again because His eyes have penetrated her whole being, opened up her heart and her eyes, and filled her with the force of a new creation.

This woman, taken in adultery represents me, you, each and every one of us. For the union of love with the Spirit is a union which we may either accept or refuse. It depends on us to be faithful or not. In this woman we find the whole History of the Chosen people, of all Israel, who became a ‘harlot’ as recounted in Ezechiel, chapter sixteen. This woman symbolizes my whole life story, the story of humanity.

She was spiritually poor, dirty, sick and maltreated. God had pity on her. He took her in His arms, adopted her as His wealthy daughter. He washed her from all the dirt, He made her whole and healthy and she was restored to her original beauty, in the ‘image and likeness’ of her Creator. Her beauty, now, will not attract men to satisfy their passion, for her beauty, now is of a higher level, she has a spiritual beauty which she can be offered to the one and only; to her Creator.

This is the experience of the healing power of Jesus; we will be healed when we are conscious that we are adulterers, that we are filled with selfishness and have not followed His call. Amen.