FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:16-21. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick; “Remember not the former things, nor consider, the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”
SECOND READING: Philippians 3: 8-14. I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL: John 8: 1-11. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”
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In today’s gospel, Jesus forges a unique understanding with the adulteress without having even spoken to each other. He had been doing his own thing when the whole incident happened. Though he was taken unawares, his presence of mind had been complete. We detect no hesitation on his part. He instinctively knew on which side of the wall he stands. The poor woman had been all alone when the episode began. Although she speaks very little—merely three words—the moment Jesus began to speek, she too promptly understood that an understanding had been established between her and he whom she addressed as the Lord. Though worlds apart, they communicated on an equal level: the level of the powerless. The moment is of astounding beauty, a moment of deep and genuine solidarity. The powerless, the poor, the dispossesses—whatever one chooses to call them—are effectively hated by the self-righteous. Jesus is not part of such hate.
The ‘communion of the powerless’ is what a perceptive Isaiah would not hesitate to call “a new thing”, “a way in the wilderness”, a “river in the desert”. For this is how the prophet envisioned the new social and political order which God dreamed of establishing on earth. Drawing on the image of water—the life-giving element which, throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, symbolises the Holy Spirit—he proclaims that the water which destroys the powerful is the same which shall nourish and support the powerless (those considered to be “wild beasts”, “jackals” and “ostriches”). While the former shall despair and perish, the latter “will honour” the Lord, for the Lord shall “give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert”.
Paul shows himself to be prepared to consider the ‘communion of the powerful’ to be “a loss”, and “refuse”, in comparison to “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. Unless each one of us, beginning with me, come to consider the poor not as ‘them’ but as ‘us’, than our justification is mere self-righteousness. We can only “gain Christ and be found in him ... through faith in Christ”, and through “the righteousness from God”. It is only by “sharing his sufferings” when in solidarity with the poor, being rejected and hated by the powerful and “becoming like him in his death”, that it is at all possible to be Church and “attain the resurrection from the dead”.
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