Jesus is teaching. The scribes and Pharisees are looking for something to use against him. They bring along a woman who has been caught committing adultery.

The woman becomes “something to use against” Jesus. “Moses”, they say, “has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning”.

The decision about her life or death becomes something to use to win points over Jesus. How do we use people to win points over others? How do we take advantage of people’s mistakes to carry out our own hidden agendas?  Who are the people to whom we refer disparagingly as “women like this” or “people like this”?

The scribes and Pharisees have made the woman stand in full view of everybody, she who - they say - has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. Everyone can stare at her. Her sin is exposed.

Jesus does not stare. Jesus bends down and begins writing on the ground. As they persist with their question Jesus looks up. “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

The scribes and Pharisees slink away one by one. Only when Jesus is alone with her does he look up and speak to the woman, still standing there in her humiliation.
“Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir”.

Why does the woman remain? Why does she not slink away after the others have gone? She remains and hears: “Neither do I condemn you, go away and don’t sin anymore”.

On Friday, March 16 we had a national day of prayer, fasting and repentance as a way of responding to the situation of crime in our country.

In recent months and years acts of crime and violence have been in full view –somewhat like the woman dragged away in the act of committing adultery and made to stand in full view of everybody.

Perhaps at times it has seemed that people, looking for something to use against each other, were exploiting the situation. They were dragging the woman – T & T, violated of her own choosing by violence - and making her stand in full view of everybody not because they were concerned about righting the wrongs but to score points over someone else.

The response called for by our Church last week was the response indicated by Jesus bending down and writing on the ground:  taking time-out for silence, reflection and really hearing the words: If there is one of you that has not sinned…calling us to look at ourselves, to see who we are and recognise ways in which we have sinned and need to change individually and communally in order to live up to our responsibilities as sons and daughters of God, citizens of our beloved Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and inhabitants of planet Earth.

At the end of it all, if, like the woman, we remained there, we heard the dismissal: “Go away and do not sin anymore”.

But perhaps there are times when we have experienced ourselves like Jesus in the story.

Perhaps as a teacher we have been put on the spot by angry parents who have brought one of our students, against whom they have a complaint.

Perhaps we may have guessed from our past experience that they were using this incident to get at us, to show us up. We had to keep our cool and devise some strategy to deal with the situation. This was our time of bending down and writing on the ground.

Let us pray

Beloved God! You sent your son Jesus not to condemn but to save, to call us to a new life. Thank you for those who in silence help us to see ourselves as we are. They do not condemn us; we condemn ourselves when we slink away in shame.

At other times we just stand there waiting in silence and we hear the words: “Go and do not sin anymore.” We have been given another chance.

Thank you for those who work for restorative justice. They do not condone wrongdoing but neither do they condemn the wrongdoer forever. They offer a way for the wrong doer to work towards restoring - to the extent that this is possible - what has been damaged.

At times we become so incensed about the misdeeds of others that we do not really care about their changing; all we want is to get rid of them. Forgive us Lord.

Help us to know when to bend down and write in silence so that when we look up we may speak words that come from you.
Amen.

Christina Araujo OP is a Sinsinawan Dominican who presently coordinates the Total Parish Catechesis programme in the Holy Rosary/St Martin de Porres parish.