Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Go and Sin No More

Imagine you're in a tunnel, standing on a train track, and a train is hurtling towards you. There's no time to run back, and the walls of the tunnel are pressed up against the track. You can't get out, and the train is coming.

Something similar was happening to the woman we just heard about in today's gospel. In Jewish law, the three gravest sins were murder, idolatry, and adultery. All three were punishable by death.

This woman is caught in the act of adultery. And the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, know it. She can't escape. The penalty is death by stoning.

She is expecting death. Maybe she's wishing she had a second chance. The cruelty of the Pharisees must be terrible for her. They really don't care about her at all; they just want to use her to trap Jesus.

But worst of all must be the shame. We've all sinned; we've all experienced shame, that burning desire to crawl into the ground and disappear. Imagine how great hers must have been. And the crowd is mocking her.

But Jesus does not condemn her. He forgives her. When he looks at her, he sees what St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:10: "You are God's masterpiece." St. Augustine, commenting on this gospel passage we just heard, says that a great misery meets a great mercy. In Latin it sounds really good: misery is miseria and mercy is misericordia. So, a great miseria meets an even greater misericordia.

And this leads to true conversion. John Paul II once said: "We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son." When we meet that love, in Jesus, it moves us to change in response. This is why Jesus says to the woman, "Go, and sin no more."

We are called to a new relationship with God. We come as sinners, and we leave forgiven. God is with us. Christ heals us, fills us with joy, and challenges us to be saints. Go, and sin no more.

There's a remarkable drawing by Sister Grace Remington which captures the drama of today's gospel in a vivid way.

The characters are different, but the message is the same. It's called "Mary Consoles Eve," and the artist is envisioning what would happen if the Blessed Virgin Mary met Eve.

Eve is standing before Mary with her head bowed down. Her face is crimson with shame, and you can see that she wants to look up at Mary, but she doesn't dare. In her hand she's holding an apple with a bite taken out of it, a symbol of her sin.

There's a snake wrapped around her leg. It's the Devil, who, once we've sinned, tries to convince us that there's no forgiveness and that thing will never change.

What about Mary? She's looking lovingly at Eve, and her right hand is caressing Eve's face. It looks like she's trying to draw Eve's eyes up to meet her own.

Mary's left hand is holding Eve's hand against her stomach. Mary is pregnant with Jesus, the one who forgives us, breaks through our shame and our hardness of heart, and gives us life. And Mary is crushing the snake's head with her foot – but she's not even looking at it! It's as though she were saying, "Don't worry, my son has this taken care of. He is not afraid of sin. He wants to forgive you and make you knew."

This experience is offered to all of us. This experience brings us to hear Christ's words: "Go, and sin no more, because I am with you."

When Christ says, "Go and sin no more," what does that mean for our own lives?

It's an invitation to a new way of life. Lent is a time the Church gives us to enter into that new way of life. Let's make the most of the remainder of Lent to do exactly that. When our sins are forgiven, it brings us to want to live differently. It brings us to want to be saints.

One very practical result is that it brings us to forgive others. It's very easy to hold rancor in our hearts when someone hurts us. It can be in little ways, like when someone cuts us off in traffic or fails to invite us to a party. It can be in major ways, like a betrayal or a rejection.

But when Christ says "Go, and sin no more," he's saying that with his power we can truly forgive others.

Here's a tip to help do that. When angry thoughts towards someone pop up, say a quick prayer: "Jesus, I pray for that person who hurt me. Help me to forgive as you forgive."

When we receive Christ in the Eucharist, let's ask him to help us to forgive. And we begin to experience the peace that goes beyond what we can imagine. Christ forgives us, he lifts us up, and he tells us "Go and sin no more."