The regret of not being careful in her secret life and covering her tracks isn’t the kind of regret experienced here! It’s the regret of ever indulging in that and the shame of her filth exposed for everyone to see. ‘Why didn’t I ever stop this?’ She must have thought! ‘Why indulging in this knowing the risks involved?’ ‘Was the pleasure really worth this?’

‘Can I bribe them so that they let me go?’ But it was obvious that their anger was not the kind to play with. ‘Please don’t humiliate me, please…’she might have tried to say.

Then there was this moment of fearful expectation of painful death awaiting her as the execution squad dragged her violently at the feet of Jesus. But why did they bring her to Jesus? And where is the man with whom she’s been lying with? The one they caught her with? She completely ignored. But she didn’t have time to think about him; “How can I escape from their grip? Who can save me? Can Jesus save me? Can the look in my eye bring about empathy from this Jesus?”

“Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery”, Scribes and Pharisees screamed. This pierced deep into her heart, uncovering shame and exposing her to the disdainfully charged look from the public. Her filth was exposed in these words, and tears of regret she couldn’t hold any longer streamed down her cheeks. She stood in frozen exposure never quite being able to allow her eyes to adjust to public shame. Head bowed down, hair hiding the ignominy on her face, she couldn’t take any more scorn or stares fraught with contempt.

“Now the Law of Moses”, the scribes and Pharisees continued, “commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” With these words, all her shame vanished and got replaced by fear. ‘Oh no, help me God’ She must have muttered—even though she wasn’t ignorant of what was awaiting her— ‘Forgive me God’, she begged.

In the meantime, the scribes and Pharisees were waiting for this moment, hoping to get some charge to bring against Him. When the woman realized how decisive the next statement from Jesus’s mouth is going to be, thoughts to attempt inquiring upon the Lord’s mercy came into her mind when Jesus suddenly bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. What was He writing? They all disregarded and, with their impatience coming in the way, they continued to ask him.

Jesus stood up and said to them: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her!”

At the hearing of this peculiar answer, a perplexed silence must have followed. She flinched as she’d dared a look at him, after the hearing of what she thought to be a flimsy answer. Once more, Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground. She heaved a deep sigh, closed her eyes, bracing for stones to be thrown at her.

But surprisingly enough, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before her.

John7:53- 8:11 “The Woman Caught in adultery”

In the zeal they had for the law, Jesus did not approve of them because behind that zeal he knew they had bigger sins as well.

Confronted with the Holiness of Christ, their hearts became more and more aware of their own sins and their own filth that the zeal they had to accuse the adulterous woman was extinguished. The authority of Jesus in his words created a chasm between His holiness and their sinfulness. It’s as if Christ words cut through their complacency and exposed the dark secrets of their hearts.

Oh how hypocrites they were—like we are— by bringing before God other people’s sins and failures in the name of passion and zeal for God, forgetting their sinfulness and gloom.

Christ, in this story, didn’t approve of the adulterous woman either; but, in his compassion, not willing to destroy her in her sins, He saved her; but with this caution: “Sin no more”.

Would you now see Christ’s wisdom in this story? Christ who is God; Christ who knows how to deal with sin! May his holiness shine all the more in our hearts that we may go on sobbing for our own hypocrisy and our judging hearts. Why do I go on noticing the speck in my brother’s eye and not notice the log in mine?

Prayer: “Let, Oh Holy Father, through your holy word, your holiness and your infinite purity shine in my heart so that I see my helplessness and dependence on you to fight against my own sins. Give me a heart more inclined to pray for [and to save] the souls of sinners and not seek their destruction…Give me that strength to love them and be pure.” Amen.