St John’s account of the woman taken in adultery is a searching examination of our attitudes to repentance, mercy and forgiveness. Significantly, the account does not question the guilt of the woman brought to Jesus. According to the strict letter of the law her guilt had been established beyond doubt, thereby meriting the prescribed sentence of stoning.
Jesus moved the focus from the guilt of the woman to the dispositions of those calling for her death. “If there is one amongst you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Not surprisingly, the crowd melted away, leaving Jesus alone with the woman. He alone spoke words of mercy. “Neither do I condemn you. Go away, and sin no more.”
There is within sinful hearts a gulf between a selfish longing for forgiveness and the willingness to judge others. It is as if we were blind to the inconsistency of seeking the Father’s mercy for ourselves while denying it to others. We would never dream of praying that we might be judged as we judge others, and yet our judgment of others so frequently demands precisely this.
If we are to forgive as Jesus forgave and if we are to become merciful as the Father is merciful, we cannot achieve this alone.
St Paul realised this when he declared that he was no longer trying for a perfection that came from his own efforts. We are brought to the same truth about ourselves when we confront our unwillingness to forgive, frequently linked to an ingrained harbouring of past hurts.
St Paul proposed a change of heart that entrusts itself unreservedly to the God whose mercy transforms sinful hearts.
“I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want to know is Christ and the power of his resurrection.”
The narrative of the woman taken in adultery demonstrated that we cannot change our unforgiving hearts. Only God can do this. Faith alone enables us to leave behind the futility of the past, entrusting ourselves to a merciful Father.
This was the hope proposed by the Prophet Isaiah long ago, the only hope that opens the door to the Father’s mercy. “No need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before. See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness.”
True repentance accepts that we are the wilderness longing for the Lord’s new deed.
This article first appeared in the March 11 2016 issue of The Catholic Herald. To download the entire issue for free with our new app, go here
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