Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year C) April 6, 2025
The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.
Transcript:
“So he was left alone with the woman before him.” Words from the Gospel According to John.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Exposed.
Perhaps, they did not even know her name.
But all they knew was that she was exposed.
The one in the middle.
The one that was caught.
Yanked from the cover of darkness, she was made to stand where every eye could see her.
Fingers point.
Eyes glare.
Voices snarl.
She was at the center of attention.
And yet, everyone seemed to be talking past her.
To another.
She was caught, yes.
But it seems that she was caught in order to catch another.
– To catch the One who was sitting down in the temple area teaching the poor.
And now the focus changes over to that One, to Him.
Fingers point.
Eyes glare.
Voices snarl.
Things are getting intense.
Intense in the story of the gospel.
Intense in the season of Lent.
Because, my brothers and sisters, we are in what I call “deep Lent.”
Last Sunday light struck down and briefly lit our dark violets into a bright rose.
And this Sunday we cover the statues and drape the holy images.
But the more we cover up the more things become apparent.
And in the gospel readings for the liturgy the more Jesus goes about His work, the more His opponents force the issue.
And so while Jesus was in the middle of His public ministry, a woman in all her sin was utterly morally exposed before a crowd for all to see.
But she was only exposed so that her failure might be used to test Jesus and expose Him for being one of two things through the example of this woman who was worthy of death according to the Mosaic law:
– Either expose Jesus as a criminal for authorizing an unlawful use of capital punishment when only the Romans could carry out such a thing.
– Or, as a fraud for forbidding the woman’s just punishment thus violating the same Mosaic law, something a true Messiah would never do.
But in reality, it is in both the woman’s adultery and the Pharisees testing He who is Untestable that humanity’s brokenness is exposed.
One shows humanity’s enslavement to the flesh destroying a marriage and family.
The other shows humanity’s capitalizing on the failures of one of its own members and reducing her to being a mere pawn in a game to attack an innocent Man.
Thus, even as the Pharisees stand ready to condemn,
And even as the crowd gathers around,
They are just as exposed as the woman they caught in the act.
For all stood exposed before the gaze of Jesus, and He saw all for whom they truly were.
– the woman caught in adultery.
– And the Pharisees standing in condemnation.
And so in this sense, WE are like the woman in the gospel.
We in all our sin are utterly exposed,
And we are caught in the middle between the gaze of the Lord and the glare of a crowd.
And who is the crowd but the evil one and his pharisaical pack of demons who scream,
“We caught this woman,
we caught this man,
we caught this soul in the very act of: – [you fill in the blank.]
“And the moral law of creation demands that she,
demands that he,
lose eternal life and be without the friendship of God like us.”
This crowd of evil spirits who seek the ruin of souls,
stands around us daily with stones of shame, fear, doubt, and despair ready to throw.
They point.
They glare.
They snarl.
But the gaze of the Lord who sees us as well has a different view,
And we see this first on full display in the gospel with the woman who was caught.
Yes, He knows her sin, but He knows her name.
Yes, He sees her fault, but He sees His image.
Yes, He witnesses her shame, but He possesses her redemption.
Yes, she is utterly exposed.
But she is infinitely loved.
And in this unnamed woman – all of humanity can find its identity,
– fallen, broken, but looked upon by God.
The woman was saved, yes, because Christ beat the Pharisees at their own game in exposing their own lack of seriousness by
- using their own fear of Roman reprisal for carrying out an execution, no matter who in the community did it,
- by calling out their own sinful lack of fitness to do the job anyway,
- and by making them look like sinners and compromisers of the law they sought to test Jesus with because they did not stone her either.
But most importantly Jesus saved this woman in the same way He would bring the chance of salvation to the whole world,
- by allowing His first coming in the flesh to be not one of condemnation but of forgiveness.
The Pharisees in exposing the woman tried to expose the Lord,
but He turned the tables, tore down their façade,
and exposed them using only His word.
And so the gaze of the Lord turns to us when the devil glares at our souls.
But we shall have no fear even if we are exposed by the enemy.
We shall not dread even if we are dragged in the middle.
We shall not tremble even in the face of stones.
Rather, we will allow the Lord to render the crowd defenseless and dispersed by His word in the Scriptures.
We will be left alone with Him in the sacrament of confession where we receive not condemnation but absolution.
And with all the might of God’s grace we will go and sin no more.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Given at St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville, TN.