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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent (A and B)
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Gospel text (Jn 8:1-11): Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area... Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”... Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her...”

Jesus is the Legislator, He is Justice in person.

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, St John the Evangelist highlights one detail: while His accusers are insistently interrogating Him, Jesus bends down and starts writing with His finger on the ground. This gesture portrays Christ as the divine legislator: in fact, God wrote the law with His finger on tablets of stone.

Jesus is the Legislator, He is Justice in person. And what is His sentence? "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her". These words are full of the disarming power of truth that pulls down the wall of hypocrisy and opens consciences to a greater justice, that of love, in which consists the fulfillment of every precept.

—Jesus, absolving the woman of her sin, ushers her into a new life oriented to good: God wants only goodness and life for us; He provides for the health of our soul through His ministers, delivering us from evil with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.