Homily

5th Sunday of Lent – 6th April 2025

Posłuchaj kazania po polsku:

When I was studying the teachings of the Fathers of the Church such as St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Gregory the Great, and many others, several times in their homilies I came across this saying: “Every saint has a past; Every sinner has a future.” Well, to put it simply, this expression means: If you are a saint, you do indeed have a past and you would be a better saint if you remembered your past and considered the pit you were-in before Jesus found you. On the other hand, if you are a sinner, then by God’s grace you can have a wonderful future if you will come to Jesus and trust him as your Lord and Saviour.

Listen, today’s gospel is all about this expression.

There are several things we can learn and apply to our own lives from this passage of Scripture.

The first truth is obvious: All of us are like this woman. We all are guilty of sin, whether we’ve been caught or not. We have all sinned in some way. We have all caught by God’s justice. In Christ, we are all on equal ground. We are helpless and unable to change our condition unless someone steps in to help us. We can’t buy our way out of trouble and we can’t deny our own condition. We are condemned by our conscience, condemned by our true moral guilt, and often condemned by others. If people knew us better than they do, they would condemn us even more than they do. Thanks be to God they don’t know the half of it.

The second truth is that other people, and especially the so-called pious brothers and sisters in our churches, condemn others (including us) much more than God does. And today’s Gospel shows that God – Jesus – hates and condemns the sin but He loves the sinner and forgives and accepts all who come to Him in faith and with repentant hearts. But people surround us, people from our family, from our community, from our society – they are different, they are professional judges (like those who brought this sinful woman to Jesus in today’s gospel story). If you get in their bad books, if they see your sin – forget about mercy! You are in big trouble!

Why is that? Why does each and every one of us carry a stone? Is it because each and every one of us doesn’t remember and doesn’t acknowledge the pit in the past we were-in before Jesus found us and forgave our mistakes, our sins?… If so, well… we have a big problem within our Community, within our Church.

Look our God, our Jesus, is different. He didn’t say: “Sin no more and then I won’t condemn you”. That’s what religious people like to say: “Clean up your act and then we will accept you.” Jesus says: “I will forgive you and give you the power to clean up your act”. Religion says: “Change or I will condemn you”. It uses fear and intimidation to make people measure up. God’s grace says: “I have forgiven you. Now let me also transform your life”. We don’t change in order to be accepted; we change because we have already been accepted. Nothing motivates a new life like grace received into the heart. Grace does what rules can never do.

Look, Jesus never denied the woman’s guilt. He didn’t say: “Woman, it’s no big deal” or “I’m going to let it slide” or “It’s not your fault”. Jesus never excused her sin, only the hypocrisy of her accusers. Rather, he forgives her sin and then sends her forth to live a brand-new life. Even though she is guilty (caught in the act), by God’s grace she leaves with a clean slate, a new life, and a new power within.

The reason Jesus constantly acts this way is simply explained by Apostle John (chap. 3:17) when he says: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. Please add to that Letter to the Romans (chap. 8:1): “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

What enables someone to have the power to overcome sin? What is it? The threat of the law obviously didn’t stop the woman from committing adultery. But receiving Jesus’ acceptance – knowing that even though she deserved to be stoned to death, He did not condemn her – THAT gave her the power to “go and sin no more”.

We have to stop saying to others: “Go and sin no more first, then we won’t condemn you”, because Jesus said: “Neither do I condemn you” before saying “Sin no more”. What we need to understand is that when there is no condemnation, people are empowered to live victorious lives, lives that glorify Jesus. Grace produces an effortless empowerment through the revelation of no condemnation.

So, the main message which flows from today’s gospel is as simple as this: If a brother or sister gets tangled in sin, our place is not to judge them, but to restore them by pointing them to the forgiveness and gift of no condemnation that are found in Jesus. The only person who is without sin and who could have exercised judicial punishment on the woman was Jesus, and He did not. I like to say it this way when describing what happened as the Pharisees waited to stone the woman: The Pharisees would if they could, but they could not. Jesus could if He would, but He would not. That’s our Jesus! Let us follow him!

with prayer – Fr. Tomasz