Homily: Fifth Sunday of Lent: 2007

Today is the 5th Sunday of Lent, the last Sunday before Palm Sunday. And today we look at the Gospel encounter of Jesus, the woman caught in the act of adultery and her many (all male) accusers. And there is an intriguing little mystery in this passage. Because although we have no knowledge and certainly no documentation that Our Lord ever wrote anything -- and it's likely he never did -- we do know that he wrote something in the sand. "Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger." The great theologian Frank Sheed once said, "I'd give my eyeteeth to know what it was he wrote!" I wonder what it was. Some say it was a list of all the sins of those accusers, the one with the stones. Who knows? I guess we'll find out in heaven.

Anyway, I find it interesting that the men were at least astute and awake enough to know that Jesus wouldn't be very likely to stone the woman to death. They knew the law; they knew her sentence was death, and what a horrible death it would be! But then they could accuse Jesus of being "soft on crime," I guess. And in the off chance that he did join them, they could say that he was being reactionary; harsh and cruel to one of his own. I don't know. That's pretty coldly cynical. But Jesus, being eternal wisdom itself, doesn't play their game. He turns the tables on them and while not repudiating the Law ("Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her"), he certainly takes all the teeth out of it! I think it's interesting that the oldest dropped their stones and left first. Perhaps the sheer number and weight of their sins just compelled them! I think that in itself points to an old truth. We mourn the death of the very young, and rightly so. But as a friend of mine once said, as she was dying of cancer: "No one gets out of this world alive." God is going to come for each of us sooner or later. And those whom he gathers up in his arms in their youth have presumably not weighed down their hearts and souls with sin as much. And that's a great mercy. Those of us who are old should ponder that. Think of those sins weighing us down like rocks. Repent, before it is too late! You who have lived longer have surely been tempted more, been exposed to more, perhaps given in to more. It's not too late; it's never too late. Change your lives; confess your sins; go to the Sacrament of Confession -- offered here every Saturday (except Holy Saturday) 4:00 - 5:30 pm and tomorrow at 7:00 pm at G__ S___ in C____. That's a communal penance service, so there will be lots of priests there to hear your individual confessions. Lots of priests, and may I point out, some perhaps you've never seen before and may rarely -- if ever -- see again! But they all bring Christ to you . . . a chance to reform, clean up and get right with God. Many of you will wear something bright and new for Easter -- certainly something clean -- on your bodies. What about your souls? And may I point out, we are getting so close to Easter that this is the last communal penance service in the deanery. "Go and sin no more."

Let us now profess our faith.