"Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

   "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

    "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."

 

 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

Isaiah 43:16-21

 Thus says Yahweh,"

Who opened a way through the sea and a path in the mighty waters,  who brought down chariots and horses, a whole army of them, and there they lay, never to rise again,

snuffed out like a wick.  But do not dwell on the past, or remember the things of old. Look, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth. Do you not see? I am opening up a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 

 The beasts of the land will honor me, jackals and ostriches, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert  I have formed this people for myself; they will proclaim my praise.

 

Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

 

＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊

Philippians 3:8-14

 Still more, everything seems to me as nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have let everything fall away and I now consider all as garbage, if instead I may gain Christ.   May I be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but with the righteousness that God gives to those who believe.

 May I know him and experience the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and be­come like him in his death,   and attain through this, God willing, the resurrection from the dead!

 I do not believe I have already reach­ed the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect, but I press on till I conquer Christ Jesus, as I have already been conquered by him.  No, brothers and sisters, I do not claim to have claimed the prize yet.

I say only this: forgetting what is behind me, I race forward and run towards the goal,  my eyes on the prize to which God has called us from above in Christ Jesus.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

John 8:1-11

As for Jesus, he went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak Jesus appeared in the temple again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them.

 Then the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone. "Master," they said, "this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now the law of Moses orders that such women be stoned to death; but you, what do you say?" They said this to test Jesus, in order to have some charge against him.

 Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. And as they continued to ask him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who has no sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And he bent down, again, writing on the ground.

 As a result of these words, they went away, one by one, starting with the elders, and Jesus was left alone, with the woman standing before him. Then Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one." And Jesus

said, "Neither do I condemn you; go away and don't sin again."

  

 Gospel Reflection：

Lectio Divina. Remembering Forget

 

Read: Yahweh invites people to let go of the past and look forward in hope. Paul speaks of what makes him let go and press forward: Christ. Jesus releases the woman caught in adultery into the freedom of a child of God.

Reflect: To let go of something, one must possess it first. To forget, one must remember first. Jesus lets the woman go from her burdensome past into liberating freedom to live her life differently.

He does so precisely because her entire life has been darkened by her humiliating past, a memory forced on her by society, giving her no freedom to break free. Jesus gives her a future. However, the crowd who brought her had no consciousness of their sinful past. Hence, Jesus gently nudges them to remember their own stories.

He doesn't do so to chain them to their past, but make them realize their kinship with the woman, own up to their past, and then let it go, embracing the freedom he was offering them well.

 Pray: Place your hurting memories at the feet of the Lord and pray for healing.

 Act: Identify a person whom you have chained with unforgiveness. Today, free that person (and yourself) from the burdening past.