Reflection
Our Scripture readings seem very appropriate for the times in which we are living. In our first reading, we hear the plight of a young woman named Susannah, falsely accused of adultery by two elders of the community who had planned to trap her into lying with them.
As I have read this account over the years, I have been struck by one verse. Susannah, about to be condemned to death, prays to God, who answers her prayer by stirring up the spirit in a young boy who declares, “I will have no part in the death of this woman.” In the midst of war and division and what seems to be a readiness to turn to violence, the boy’s declaration is a wake-up call to how we are called to relate to each other.
Similarly, in our gospel reading, a crowd brings to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. The woman is being used by the scribes and the Pharisees to try to trap Jesus, “so that they could have some charge to bring against him.” They say that the Law tells them to stone such women, and then they ask Jesus His opinion.
I wonder if Jesus was thinking about this woman’s own mother, who might have been subject to the same fate as this woman. But Jesus will have no part in the death of this woman, and says,
“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Eventually, the crowd disperses, and Jesus is left alone with the woman, and at the end, says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on do not sin anymore.”
In these times, we are called to lay down our “stones,” our words and actions meant to hurt and injure others. May we not go along with a rush to violence but instead take up the call to love and mercy.
