A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 18)
Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C – March 28, 2004
“The Accused”
BIBLE READINGS
The movie, “The Accused”, for which Jodie Foster won an Academy Award for her performance as Sarah Tobias, a rape victim, is based on actual events that took place in Massachusetts, U.S.A. Sarah Tobias, a working-class waitress who lived with a man outside of marriage, sought to unwind in a bar after a fight with him. Three young men raped her while the patrons of the bar looked on and did nothing to help her. Kathryn Murphy, the assistant district attorney appointed to prosecute the case against the men, seemed at first committed to winning the case against them. But, when faced with the fact that Sarah would not make a sympathetic case because of her behavior that night of the assault when she drank, smoked pot, and dressed and acted provocatively, Kathryn let the rapists plea to a lesser charge. Sarah felt betrayed because she was not given a chance to tell her story in court. She was deeply pained and humiliated. Though not impeccable in her behavior, she was truly a victim of sexual violence. She practically became “the accused”. Sarah Tobias is like the woman presented in today’s Gospel reading, a woman in need of justice and mercy, a woman in need of redemption.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading (Jn 8:1-11) continues to underline the radical nature of God’s compassion and forgiving love. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus. Making her stand in the middle, they said to him: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” (Jn 8:4-5). Outwardly it seemed to be a warranted act against a lawbreaker. The Gosper writer, however, explains: “They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge against him” (Jn 8:66). The scribes and Pharisees were pointing their fingers at the adulterous woman as “the accused”, but their real intent was to build a case against Jesus, the one they truly wished to accuse. The sinful woman was being used as the main element in their ploy to trap Jesus in a very difficult case, in which any solution he would give would work to his disadvantage. According to the biblical scholar, Teresa Okure, “If he declares that she should be stoned to death he will be in trouble with the Romans who forbade the Jews to administer capital punishment. If he lets her go free he will be breaking the Law of Moses.”
Indeed, a decision to stone her would be an indictment against Jesus’ stance of mercy and compassion; a resolution to release her would convict him of a lack of justice and righteousness. The malice of the scribes and Pharisees was viciously directed, not to the adulterous woman, but to the greater “accused”, Jesus Christ. From the perspective of salvation history, the one ultimately “accused” and condemned was Jesus, in whom the mercy and justice of God had embraced. Falsely accused and punished for carrying humanity’s sins, he would die for us on the cross, becoming the font of justice, mercy and healing for all.
The response of Jesus to the quandary was a symbolic action. According to the Gospel writer: “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger” (Jn 8:6). This parabolic act is probably an allusion to Jer 17:3: “Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” If so, Jesus’ writing on the ground was an indirect reminder of the “guilt” of those who were condemning the adulterous woman. When the scribes and Pharisees continued to ask him about his judgment concerning the woman’s fate, Jesus straightened up and said: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). Jesus bent down again and wrote on the ground, in a symbolic action made more powerful and meaningful by the words he had just spoken. In response to Jesus’ symbolic action and words, the accusers went away one by one, beginning with the elders. Jesus’ writing on the ground and his astonishing challenge to cast the first stone confronted the accusers’ culpability and frailty. His incisive wisdom in this death- dealing situation bluntly exposed the accusers’ falsehood and their own need for justice, mercy and healing.
The last scene of today’s Gospel episode portrays with exquisite beauty the poignant encounter between the adulterous woman and Jesus, the source of forgiveness and grace. The accusers had left. Jesus straightened up and asked her two questions that would gently underline her astounding experience of salvation: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (Jn 8:10). When the redeemed woman answered that there was no one, Jesus gave a compassionate admonition that would radically set her on the road of conversion and restoration: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (Jn 8:11).
Jean Vanier comments on the life-giving encounter between the redeemed and the Liberator: “It must have been a very deep meeting … The woman becomes conscious that she is in front of the Liberator, because when Jesus looks at her and says, Do not sin again, he creates a relationship with her. She loves him for he has saved her, and she goes away with a new force in her being. She will not sin again, because there has been a communication between the eyes of Jesus and her being, the being of Jesus and her being, and a strength comes into her.”
Finally, Jean Varnier explains further the significance of this meeting for us: “This is at the heart of each one of us, this meeting of Jesus with the woman taken in adultery. It is for us a very personal reality, for we have not been faithful to the quiet callings of the Spirit. We have turned away from the Lover and have used his gifts for our own power and glory. We dare not hear this quiet whispering of the Spirit calling us forth, so that our hearts of stone may be touched and gradually transformed into hearts of flesh, opening ourselves to the wounded ones of the world, near or far, learning to love as God loves. This is the experience of the healing power of Jesus; we will be healed when we are conscious that we are adulterers, that we are filled with selfishness and have not followed this call.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF HEART
Did we ever falsely condemn anyone and “cast the first stone”? How can we make amends?
Do we acknowledge our own personal participation in the condemnation and punishment of the ultimately “accused”, Jesus Christ, our redeemer?
In what way are we the adulterous woman, the object of Christ’s forgiving and redeeming love and set on the road of renewal and restoration?
Leader: Loving Father,
your beloved Son Jesus, our redeeming Lord,
was falsely accused.
He suffered the excruciating pain of injustice on the Cross.
Forgive us for we have been like the adulterous woman.
We have turned away from your love
and we were unfaithful to the quiet callings of your Spirit.
Forgive us for our hypocrisies.
We have ignored the afflictions
of those yearning for your redeeming love.
Forgive us for crucifying Jesus on the Cross by our cruelties.
We have failed to love the wounded of this world.
Forgive us for our indifference.
We have not protected
the dignity of the poor and the falsely accused.
Forgive us for not showing Christ’s mercy to the condemned.
May we allow ourselves to be renewed
and restored by the healing power
of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
May we imitate his life giving ministry to the poor, the outcast and the accused.
We thank you and bless you, gracious God,
for giving us Jesus Christ, our font of love and justice,
now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (Jn 8:11)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Today, offer special prayers for women who have experienced and are experiencing any form of violence and exploitation.
ACTION PLAN: In any way you can, participate in the Christian task of liberating the victims of false accusations and injustice.
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