Let's throw our stones away

Today the Gospel offers us a beautiful story of forgiveness and love. It is the story of the woman who was thrown at Jesus’ feet because the hypocritical Pharisees and the crowd that followed them discovered her in the act of adultery. (see readings for today http://www.usccb.org/nab/032110c.shtml)

To test Jesus they brought the woman to Him to see how he would judge her. And we receive a wonderful insight into how Jesus judges us. As the crowd waited, Jesus bent down and with His finger began tracing something in the sand. He seemed to be ignoring the people as they kept asking him, “Teacher, what do you say?” As we know, Jesus stood, looked at them and said quite simply: “let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” As they left, one by one, Jesus turned to the cowering woman and told her lovingly that He did not condemn her but He told her to go “and sin no more.”

In our community the Sisters share on the Sunday Readings each Saturday before our evening meal. One of the Sisters said she often thinks of Jesus standing in front of the woman so that He would be the One pelted by the stones. Jesus stood in front of each one of us all the way to the Cross. He does not condemn us but He asks us to sin no more. Look at what our sins cost Him.!Like the Pharisees and the crowd, let us not accuse or condemn others for what we perceive as their sin. Today let us toss our stones away and sin no more. Why? Because Jesus loves us!

For Father Landry's homily on the Gospel click on: http://www.catholicpreaching.com/index.php?content=homilies&homilies=20070325