5th Sunday of Lent (C) 6 April 2025 Sermon

5th Sunday of Lent (C) 6 April 2025 Cast the first stone

There are two things wrong here, the adultery and the self-righteousness.

The adultery is the more obvious sin and attracts everyone’s attention. But the self-righteousness is a serious problem.

If the pharisees had been anxious about the matter simply because they wanted God's  order restored, or the commands of God to be honoured, it might have been alright.

But they did not really care about God’s order, or the spiritual welfare of the woman. Or the sanctity of marriage. They only wanted to trap Jesus.

He exposed their hypocrisy. He was not saying that adultery is alright, but pointing out the less obvious sin, which may be more deadly.

At least the adulterer can repent of his sin; while the self-righteous may not realize he even has a sin.

If their hearts were free of malice the pharisees would have seen things as Jesus saw them.

He was interested in the state of souls, and wanted to lead souls to repentance, while still upholding God's commandments.

In this world we are so far from the original innocence that we have many types of sins compounding each other. To repair one sin will require that we have to change other factors as well.

Sin leads to more sin. Lust might lead to gluttony or sloth. Then pride, because we think someone else is worse than we are. Then angry if we are corrected. And so on.

A simple and humble appeal to God's mercy will bring it all into alignment. If sin leads to sin then so does repentance lead to repentance. And we can repair the damage - not only the damage to an individual soul, but the damage a whole society suffers when it turns away from God.

True upholding of the commands requires a deeper understanding of the need for mercy.

We learn through mercy what is false about the sinful behaviour;  we come to be repelled by that behaviour, and thus do not repeat the sin.

What do we do with sinners now? We don’t stone them to death, which is some advance. But we might pardon them more through apathy than through a genuine mercy.

Apathy, insofar as we may not care whether or not adultery is committed, or more generally God's  laws are kept.

Nor are we much advanced when it comes to our reaction to the sins of others. We might feel superior to others instead of seeking to uproot the sin in ourselves (cf plank in one’s eye Mt 7,3-5). 

As St Paul put it: Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins… but rejoices in the truth etc (1 Cor 13).

True charity is that we help each other to get these things right. We want other people to be saved, and we want God's kingdom on earth. Both goals can be worked on at the same time.

This is what Our Lord was trying to demonstrate to the people. It was hard, even for Him. It is not much easier today.  We are tempted to overplay one thing while ignoring the other. Too severe in our judgments of others; too lenient in dismissing serious sin.

Let us cultivate in prayer the mercy of God, acting within us and in the wider society.