LECTIONARY READINGS
First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 125(126)
Second Reading: Philippians 3:8-14
Gospel: John 8:1-11
Link to readings
The setting for this Sunday’s Gospel is Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. Yom Kippur, the final opportunity to repent before the close of the year, has just ended. The scribes and Pharisees standing before Jesus are missing the opportunity for repentance, but the lone woman, crouched there, takes it eagerly.
Jesus is offering this chosen woman a way out of her wilderness (First Reading). Working marvels for her (Psalm), he is doing something new by mixing what the righteousness of the law requires with forgiveness and mercy. He saves her life and then offers her the drink of new spiritual life. She leaves filled with gladness. St Paul also received this newness of life (Second Reading). He, like the woman, has been possessed by Christ and desires only to continue upward toward the prize. He counts all else as rubbish. For him, knowing Christ as Lord is all that matters.
We are Pilgrims of Hope in this Jubilee year. Let’s continue to move upward into Holy Week as Christ’s chosen, praying that we might be agents of his forgiveness and mercy in all the situations of our lives.
SECOND READING
Philippians 3: 8–14
Brothers and Sisters: I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
REFLECTION
For the moment, I neither strain forward nor press onward, but simply pause to rest in the company of the Lord. I take time to consider my life and my heart. Is there anything pressing which I could leave with the Lord? What grace am I seeking?
After a while, I read the text from this letter of St Paul to the Church at Philippi. What am I noticing? What is drawing me? Is there anything moving within me? I read it again. In sharing Christ’s life and death, I am being invited into his glory, the prize of which St Paul speaks. But is there something I have lost due to Christ? What have I suffered by being a follower? I ponder . . .
Perhaps I am drawn to the line ‘Christ Jesus has made me his own’. What is it like to be Christ’s own? To be called by him in this way? Again, I ponder . . .
When ready, I end this prayer time by praying that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection. ‘Lord that I may know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly day by day. Amen.’
GOSPEL
Luke 8: 1–11
At that time: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’
REFLECTION
Christ’s forgiveness, here, is utterly complete – it wipes out the woman’s past shame and does something new in her, pointing her to the truth that she belongs to him.
I take a few deep breaths, ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, and then read, very prayerfully, this scripture. I pause often to ponder what is happening in the life of this woman. Then, when ready, I visualise myself in her place. I feel the heat of the day, the dust rising from the feet of the baying crowd, the shame of being the centre of attention. I see faces full of anger – when and where have I ever felt misjudged, accused, blamed, threatened . . .?
I turn to Jesus, calmly writing in the sand. What is he writing? What do I want him to write? Is there something I want to tell him about my life? Are there any wildernesses of my own from which I want to be saved?
Now the crowd has gone, and I am left alone, face to face, with Jesus. How do I feel? What do I perceive in his expression and in the sound of his voice toward me? He is telling me that my shame is forgotten, my failings wiped out. How do I feel now? I spend some moments expressing something of my feelings for Jesus, before ending with a slow sign of the cross.
Courtesy of St Beuno’s Outreach in the Diocese of Wrexham, UK