Today’s Mass: long readings; simple teaching: law should bend to mercy. In the Gospel Jesus, “the friend of publicans and sinners,” asserts the fact that we are capable of sin, but sin can be forgiven.
His adversaries line up in defense of the law. They find certain security there protecting their own consciences while condemning the woman caught in a sinful act. Jesus is always eager to teach. Here the lesson is how to show us evil comes from sin and how to avoid it so that we may grow in peace, joy and happiness.
Notice how in the gospels he never outright condemns a particular person. He was sent to teach sinners what sin is and how they should conduct themselves, not only toward God, but also toward one another: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first” to condemn the one you see is unquestionably a sinner.
Resolve: I shall spend sometime today asking the Lord to make himself better known to me so that I might know myself better as a sinner; to see his pardon is not weakness, but love that judges me and others as he judged the woman in today’s Gospel, and finally, that I may be like him in seeing others, while never denying the reality of sin.