Saint Paul and the Adulteress
At a first glance, we might not see much in common between Saint Paul and the woman caught in the act of adultery. I think they are more alike than we might suspect.
Three characters dominate today’s readings. The first reading introduces a God who will do something entirely new. Saint Paul speaks from his heart in the second reading. The Gospel reading introduces us to a woman caught in adultery.
You probably remember that when Saint Paul was still a young man known as Saul, he was a great success as a religious leader of the Jewish people. Saul was a good man who worked hard and thought well. At a young age, he led the persecution of the followers of Jesus, and even presided over the death of Saint Stephen, the first Christian Martyr. He was an intellectual giant, and judged by the people and by his elders to be both wise and righteous.
I am certain there is not even one of us who are or ever were as smart, as successful, or as morally good as the young man Saul. If we were there, we would have admired him and thought highly of him. We would have judged him favorably.
Jesus didn’t judge him favorably. Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus and accuses Saul of persecuting him. After his encounter with Jesus, Saint Paul comes to recognize that everything he gloried in before his conversion is worthless by comparison to knowing Jesus Christ. He learns that the goodness he attained through his own ability, efforts, and even his obedience to the law is entirely insufficient to understand God, and to participate in the eternal life of God. He receives the gift of supernatural grace from God to renew his heart so that he becomes truly righteous.
We don’t know much about the woman. We only know her sin. She was caught in the act of adultery. She’s guilty. This isn’t some long-past mistake – she was caught just now. The law is clear. The only thing missing is judgment by a competent authority. She is the very opposite of Saint Paul. Anyone looking at her would say she deserved condemnation.
If we were there, we probably would have made the same judgment as the scribes and the Pharisees. We wouldn’t know anything about her except her sin. We wouldn’t know her story. We wouldn’t know her brokenness. We would only know her sin. We would have judged her harshly.
Jesus doesn’t judge her harshly. On the contrary, Jesus invites her to walk away freely and without condemnation.
At a first glance, we might not see much in common between Saint Paul and the woman caught in the act of adultery. I think they are more alike than we might suspect. Both of them live their life up to this point under the authority of the law. Both of them discover that the law as humans understand it is insufficient, and that it is incapable of bringing grace and true justice. Both the apostle and the woman recognize that they are flawed, sinful, and still journeying. Both of them are left with nothing. Both of them discover they are entirely dependent upon the mercy of Jesus Christ.
But what really matters is that both of them are judged one way by the people around them, and exactly the opposite way by Jesus. Jesus does something new. He judges the heart, and he has mercy. He brings down the mountain of Saul’s self-righteousness, and lifts the woman up from the valley of despair. As a result, both of them come to understand that nothing matters but the mercy and grace they receive from and through and in Jesus Christ.
That is the new thing God does. God led the children of Israel away from Pharaoh and through the wilderness to freedom and to a home. Now he leads Saul away from self-righteousness and to the gift of righteousness through grace. He leads the scribes and Pharisees to recognize their own sinfulness. He leads the woman out of condemnation and to a new life.
And that is what Jesus is offering to us also. Jesus offers to show us ourselves and grant us the grace to become not just better, but even holy.
Each of us is called to holiness. Real holiness. Not Saul’s self-righteousness. Not the holiness of the crowd prepared to kill a woman because her sins seemed worse than theirs. We are not called to achieve holiness as a result of our own work or natural goodness. We are called to receive holiness as a gift from God, who wants us to be saved and to know God personally and intimately.
And that is why we have this time of Lent, to help us see ourselves, and to see the one who continues to offer the same mercy to us that he extended to so many, including this woman and to Saul who became the apostle Paul. It is so that we can accept the gift of grace and repentance. Then, we can continue to pursue the goal of holiness, of continually moving onward and upward in Christ Jesus to receive the prize of life eternal at the resurrection, and a life of joy in this life.
God calls. God provides grace. We only need to accept that grace, repent, confess, do penance, and forget what lies behind to go and sin no more.
