Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
John 8:1-11
“Neither Do I Condemn You”

In today’s Gospel, we witness a powerful encounter between mercy and judgment. The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus. They come, stones in hand, ready to condemn. But Jesus does not respond immediately. He bends down and writes on the ground—St. Augustine suggests He may have been writing the sins of the accusers. One by one, they leave, realising their own imperfections.

How often do we act like those accusers? We point fingers, we judge, forgetting that we too are sinners in need of mercy. In our families, communities, and even online, it’s easy to join in condemning others, hiding behind the illusion of righteousness. Yet Jesus invites us to drop the stones we hold—the stones of harsh judgment, gossip, and indifference.

In the silence of the Mount of Olives, Jesus found time to pray and listen to the Father. We are also invited into that silence, where we can hear God reminding us that we are loved and forgiven. And when we realise how much we have been forgiven, we are called to forgive in turn.

“Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus tells the woman. These words can change a life. Lent is our opportunity to hear them addressed to us personally. Jesus lifts us up from our shame and past mistakes and tells us to walk with dignity and hope.

Like the woman, we are given another chance. But this gift comes with a mission: “Go, and do not sin any more.” Let us be instruments of mercy, not judgment, in the lives of others. As forgiven sinners, we are called to reflect Christ’s compassion in a world that too often condemns without mercy.

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Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025