Today’s Gospel of the “woman. . . caught in the very act of committing adultery. . .” reminds me of this phrase that I once saw: “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we deserve.” Like the woman, in today’s Gospel, who broke one of God’s commandments, we are all “adulterers.” When we are unfaithful to God, when we “[sin] against heaven and against [God],” others condemn us or we condemn ourselves, saying to God: “I no longer deserve to be called your son” (Luke 15:21). Yet, Jesus not only does not condemn her, our Lord extended the Father’s mercy to her when he said to her: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Our Lord Jesus Christ extends his mercy to each one of us, a sinner.
Reflecting on this Gospel passage, Pope Francis said that “his gaze full of mercy, full of love, were enough to make this person feel — perhaps for the first time — that she has dignity, that she is not her sin, that she has dignity as a person; that she can change her life, that she can leave behind her slavery and begin to walk down a new path. . . God does not nail us to our sins, he does not identify us with the evil we have done. We have a name, and God does not identify this name with the sin we have committed. He desires to liberate us, and he wants us to want this together with Him. He wants our freedom to be converted from evil to good, and this is possible — it is possible! — with his grace” (Pope Francis, 3/13/2016).
My sisters and brothers in Christ, God “never desires the death of the sinner, but that [we] be converted and live” (id). The Prophet Jeremiah prophesied, saying: “this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days—oracle of the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts. . .” and here is the hinge: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (31:33). To live our lives according to the laws and commandments of God is to follow the path that leads to life, to “[enter] through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). Our Father in heaven knows that we will stumble and even fall. While He does not condemn us, He does expect us to “not sin any more.”
As we prepare our hearts for the holiest of weeks in the life of the Church, let us pray that Christ shines his light in the dark areas of our hearts and lead on the path of repentance, of transformation, of conversion to newness of life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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