The Woman Caught in Adultery

Gospel: John 8: 1-11

A crowd brings a woman caught in the very act of adultery before Jesus for judgment.  That only the woman is brought for judgment is itself suggestive; the fact that this reading is paired with the story of Susannah who was unjustly accused is even more suggestive.  Jesus intervenes on behalf of the woman, just as Daniel had done so for Susannah.  Both the just and the unjust are spared from sentences of death.

Today we are to see ourselves in the place of Susannah and this unnamed woman in the Gospel.  There are times in our lives when we are unjustly condemned and accused when we were in fact innocent.  Like Susannah, our response is to suffer the injustice rather than commit an injustice.  More often than not, however, we are like the woman of the Gospel, guilty of some sin or other in our lives - every sin being an act of adultery against God.  We are in need of God's mercy and we find it in the person of Jesus.

Imagine being this woman of the Gospel, freed from sin and spared from the horrid death by stoning.  How did she go about her life afterward?  How do we go about our lives knowing we have been in her place in a very real sense?  If we have been forgiven much and spared a horrific fate, how much more should we extend mercy, forgiveness, and loving deeds to others.