Patient Loving-Kindness

The 5th Sunday of Lent
Today’s Readings: Isa 43:16-21; Ps 126; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11

If you’ve been over to the parish office, you may have noticed that we have a very fancy copier there. Besides just making ordinary photocopies, it also collates, staples, punches holes and much more. I think there may even be a button for it to write my weekly sermon.

The problem, though, is that this machine is now coming up to five years in service. It’s got more than 400,000 copies on it. And just like an old car with a lot of mileage, that’s when troubles can start.

A few weeks ago, I went to make copies of my weekly homily, and the machine wasn’t working right. So I called our maintenance company, and a technician came out right away. He determined that something called the “RAM Pack” was shot. I guess this is a memory storage module that keeps track of certain settings. In any case, the repairman said he’d have to order a new one and install it.

Well, I didn’t hear from him in almost three weeks, so I phoned the technician to check on the progress of this repair. He told me they were having trouble locating the part, but they were still working on it. I thanked him for his efforts, and he promised that we’d get everything resolved very soon.

Now, the remarkable part of this story is not the copier or the elusive part—but moi. I was so impressed with my patience in this matter. Normally, when mechanical things go haywire, I will have what my family typically calls one of my famous “twit fits.” I think we all have our individual hot buttons, and for me, mechanical failures can really set me off: a computer problem, a car breakdown, a power outage, that kind of thing. But this time, I didn’t react! That’s why I was greatly impressed with my very mild and peaceful acceptance of the situation.

Even so, I am much more impressed with Jesus’ patience. Of course, we’ve talked about this many times. But I think the gospel today really illustrates the Lord’s patience in an extraordinary way.

Today, we see Jesus having a run-in with the scribes and Pharisees. We all know that from the moment Christ came out in his ministry, the scribes and Pharisees were riding him. They attacked him for healing on the Sabbath, when his disciples didn’t fast when everyone else was fasting, for not paying his Temple tax, for fraternizing with tax collectors and sinners, for being kind to Gentiles… for a million different things.

Today, we have this notable story about the young woman taken in adultery. I love the way the story starts. Here was Jesus in the Temple. It was early in the morning, and obviously he had come to pray. As always, he drew a crowd who were fascinated with him and were asking questions. And then here come this group of scribes and Pharisees with this poor girl in tow.

I think this is the part of the story that we normally gloss over so we can get to the meat of the lesson, where Jesus doesn’t condemn the woman but bends down and writes with his finger on the ground. But think about that little opening remark that the scribes and Pharisees brought in the woman they caught in adultery. What does that mean? What does it mean that “they caught her in adultery”? Were they sneaking around and snooping in people’s tents or their bedrooms? How did they find her? Did some nosy neighbor with an ax to grind tip them off? Then they dragged her in to the Temple—the poor thing!

And the thing about adultery, the last time I checked, was that it takes two to tango. Where’s the guy? There was definitely a double standard in the culture of the day.

So here’s this woman, accused all alone, and obviously had had her privacy invaded—here she stands before these prigs who are now condemning her.

The pretext, of course, for these little fingers-of-God, these ayatollahs, is that adultery was greatly condemned by the Law of Moses, by the Ten Commandments. As far as traditional sins go, it’s one of the biggies. So these scribes and Pharisees are proud of themselves. They got themselves a big fish on the line… and now they want to see what Jesus is going to do. He has two choices here. If he’s going to live up to his reputation of being forgiving and merciful, then he has to let her go—which means that he’s breaking God’s law and not being a faithful Jew. On the other hand, if he condemns her to be stoned to death as the law seems to require, then where’s his compassion and forgiveness?

It looks like Jesus is caught in a bind, but our Lord is considerably more clever than the scribes and Pharisees. What does he do? He says nothing. He simply bends down and starts to draw on the ground with his finger. Did you ever wonder, what that’s all about? Was he doodling? I never knew what it meant. Then they taught us in the seminary—and I love this—that what Jesus was writing was the individual sins of those scribes and Pharisees. They’re watching him, and they realize to their horror what he’s writing. So when Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”—they know they’re caught and have no choice but to walk away… which they do, one by one.

When they’ve all left, Jesus looks up at the young woman. “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She says, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go on your way, and from now on, sin no more.”

What a powerful lesson in many ways—especially in Christ’s incredible patience with those judgmental and hypocritical scribes and Pharisees!

Had the woman done wrong? Absolutely. Our Lord never says that what she did was not sinful. But he knows that if he condemns her—judges her—then she would be put to death and die in a state of sin, consigning her to eternal damnation. Does God want to lose a soul? Heavens, no! The parable says that the Good Shepherd would leave the 99 sheep to go off and rescue the single one who wandered off.

Christ knows well that the way to save souls is with kindness and love. That’s why he tells us that over and over. You’ve heard St. Francis de Sales’ famous saying: “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

Very nicely, Jesus says to us: “Don’t you dare put other people down for their sins and weaknesses, because you’re sinful yourself! Shall I make a list of all your sins?”

Now there’s something to make you gulp hard!

Once you’ve drawn someone in with compassion and warmth, then you can look and pray for opportunities to lift them up to God… to teach them and show them how God wants them to live. But if you condemn them off the bat, you forever lose your opportunity—and indeed, you’ll have to answer to God for that when one day you stand before him to be judged.

Lent is really about these two main points: first, going and sinning no more, yourself; and second, not judging or condemning others for their faults and weaknesses, but instead being patient and loving them and helping them do better.

Every day we have a chance—maybe a number of chances—to build people up rather than tear them down. Let Our Lord’s words touch your heart today and give you a good measure of Christ’s patient loving-kindness.