Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent

[Scripture Readings: Dan 13:41c-62; Jn 8:1-11 ]

“Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” The great German dramatist, Goethe, writes, “One need only grow old to become gentler in one's judgments. I see no fault committed which I could not have committed myself.”¹

Beginning with the eldest, the silence of the courtyard is broken as one by one rocks drop from the accusers' hands and strike the paving stones until only Jesus and the adulteress remain. Of all the sinners who were present only she hears the forgiving words restoring her to the embrace of divine friendship. When we stand exposed in all our sinfulness we are ready to encounter the mercy and love of Jesus.

1. Goethe, Maxims and Reflections, p. 86.