5th Sunday of Lent - Adulterous Woman- Meaning of Mercy

On this 5th Sunday of Lent, the Gospel gives a glimpse into the mercy of the Heart of Christ. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle of everyone and asked Jesus if she should be stoned to death.

They wanted to test Jesus, to see if He would break the Law of Moses, and therefore accuse Him of breaking the law, which would cause the people to turn against Him. The Law of Moses condemning woman to death for adultery can be found in Deuteronomy 22:24. It states about women who commits adultery, “You shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death.”

Our Lord’s responded by bending down and then began to write on the ground. At first it may seem odd, but this was His way of not answering their question. He said nothing. But they kept asking Him--- wanting to know the answer to their question, should she be stoned or not. The law prescribed that whoever witnessed the adulterous act, would be the first to cast a stone, followed by everyone else who had gathered about the one who had committed adultery. This is why Jesus said, “Let the one among you, who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

He once again began to write in the ground, and one by one-- they walked away starting with the elders- because in their hearts, they knew they were sinners. In fact, some may have committed adultery as well. The very act of Our Lord writing on the ground was an act of mercy toward the accusers because it gave them the opportunity to walk away, rather than to be confronted with their own question, used to test Jesus. Our Lord saw the misery of their hearts and helped them to see their own sinfulness giving them an opportunity to change their lives.

After everyone had left, there in the midst of what was a large crowd were two people, Jesus and the adulterous woman. Here mercy meets the sinner. Jesus straightened up, looked at her and said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” The woman replied, “No one sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on-- do not sin any more.” By these words, Our Lord mercifully inspires her with true sorrow for her sin, and pardons her guilt, without passing any sentence on her and prevents her from getting stoned to death.

We heard today about the mercy of Jesus toward the woman who committed adultery and His mercy towards the scribes and Pharisees. But what is mercy?

Mercy comes from the Latin word, “misercordia”. The word can be broken into two words --"miser" (misery) and "cordia" (heart), like "cardiac". Mercy comes from the opening of one’s heart to relieve a misery. Jesus opened His Heart on the Cross to alleviate the misery of mankind.

The word “misery” is used in a way to describe a bad state or one who lacks or needs mercy. For example, we heard the phrase “misery loves company”. A miserable person attracts or purposely incites more misery to himself. Or when we think of someone who is a “miser”, it is someone who selfishly clings to every cent. At the Garden of Eden grocery store, Dave has a little bowl of change on the counter and often times, the clerk will take change from it to help the patron with his bill. A miser never adds to the bowl of change, as opposed to a merciful person who puts change in the bowl to help someone else who will come after him.

So one who is merciful has an open heart to alleviate the misery of another person. Jesus opened His Heart to alleviate the misery of the adulterous woman by mercifully forgiving her sins and restoring her to the community.

Whereas a miser or a miserable person’s heart is in need of receiving receiving mercy, before he can give mercy.

It is the nature of God’s mercy that His heart extends into our misery and redeems it. This is the answer to the mystery of human suffering as it relates to redemption. Mercy signifies that God draws our misery into His own infinitely loving heart.

At Mass, we pray “Lord have mercy, Christ, have mercy. Lord have mercy. After the Consecration, we pray three times, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us”. By praying for mercy, we are asking God, to open His Heart to see our misery and to alleviate it, by pardoning our sins, as we come before His divine majesty at Mass.

God wants us to help alleviate the misery of others, by being merciful to them. There are 7 spiritual and 7 corporal works of mercy which are ways we can alleviate the misery of others.

In Matthew Ch. 25, Jesus gives us most of the corporal works of mercy, which we will be judged. He said, “..when I was hungry, you gave me food, thirsty, you gave me drink, in prison and sick, you visited me. When naked you clothed me.” The book of Tobit gives us “to bury the dead”.

The 7 spiritual works of mercy are: to instruct the ignorant (ignorant doesn’t mean stupid, it means one who needs to learn something), to counsel the doubtful, to pray for the living and the dead, to admonish the sinner, to comfort the sorrowful, to forgive the sinner, to bear wrongs patiently.

We have the best PSR teachers. I am so proud of them. They are fantastic. They are special. They are patient, kind and loving toward our children. They teach the children about God and the Church and what we believe. They are doing the spiritual works of mercy of instructing our children in the faith and helping them to overcome doubts about the faith. The teachers’ hearts are open to help the children obtain eternal salvation. They help the children to make good moral choices, to live a life of virtue, to practice their faith through the sacraments. To help them grow in their faith and their knowledge and love of Jesus has eternal consequences. The children in PSR learn to know and love Jesus, which is more important than learning to read and write or learn an occupation. St. Bernadette Soubiroux, St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Faustina as adults for years didn’t know how to read or write. But they learned about God and the Church by watching their parents practice their faith, by their Catechism classes, through homilies at Mass and through their personal prayer.

In every work of mercy there is a misery, no matter how small the mercy, a misery is alleviated by the love that comes deep within the heart, and so we give mercy. God wants us to practice mercy. He wants us to open our hearts to the misery of others.

Here are some examples of mercy. Parents feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide a home and give drink to the thirsty to their children. So just by being a parent they are doing works of mercy.

Its a work of mercy to cook, to clean the house, to help children to learn to pray and to teach them right and wrong to be sure they attend PSR classes.

But there are many things that seem to be insignificant works of mercy that present themselves to us everyday, but any work of mercy is not insignificant. If a child sees the misery of their brother or sister struggling with their homework and then helps them with their homework, this is an act of mercy. If during a sporting event, a fellow team member or a player from another team is accidentally knocked down, to go and help them get up is an act of mercy. We see their misery and alleviate it.

Or to pray for the sick or to pray for a person who is a fallen away Catholic, this is seeing the misery of another person (who needs God) and by our prayers we can help alleviate their misery so they can return to God.

As we come closer to divine Mercy Sunday, try to open your eyes and heart to the misery of others and to alleviate their misery by your act of mercy. Whether its giving a few coins at the grocery store to help someone else or taking care of your children, its alleviating a need.

And prepare for Easter, by going to Confession to allow God to redeem the misery in your heart caused by sin, and trust in His infinite mercy. That no matter how great the sin, God will always forgive. And may the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Mercy, help us to become fonts of mercy. Amen.