From the responsorial psalm: “Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 8:1-11)
As Jesus teaches people gathered around him in the temple area, the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman to him who has been caught in adultery. Knowing that Mosaic law prescribed that a woman caught in adultery was to be stoned, they make her stand in the middle and ask Jesus to judge her. They are testing him to have a reason to charge him with a transgression of the law. The Son of God, like his Father, is a just judge. He asks the one without sin to be the first to cast a stone. No one does because all have sinned. The crowd disperses one by one. What does Jesus teach in this that the crowd carries away with them? Under such a conviction of sin, Jesus helps us see in one another fellow sinners in need of forgiveness. There, we find a place where mercy flourishes where before only condemnation thrived. To the contrite heart set free from sin, the only command the Lord gives is to continue to live in freedom: “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
“Neither do I condemn you.” God, help me remember these words as I encounter others and relive past encounters where I am inclined to judge and condemn. It is an agony to experience from others a lack of forgiveness, yet those who fail to forgive experience even greater suffering. Give me the grace to be the first to walk away from judging others rather than to cast a stone.