I recently saw a meme that used video game imagery of defeating bosses in Dark Souls to explain overcoming sin. The meme said: "Lust is the final boss. Once you defeat it, everything unlocks." However, a priest correctly commented: "Hate to break it to you buddy but lust is the least deadly of the seven deadly sins, and the only thing that unlocks when you defeat it is the rest of the bosses." 

Yes, it is true that lust and sexual sin often lead people away from faith. That is because it is the most common. However, as far as spiritual damage by the sin itself, lust has traditionally been held to be the least, and pride as the greatest. Defeating lust is just the beginning...

Lust is the closest to love, it has just been twisted. It can be untwisted and healed, leading to love, marriage and family. Whereas pride is the furthest from love. It is often the area in which we need the most healing. 

The point is that treating sins like bosses in video games is silly. Whatever sins you are struggling with, our Gospel shows us that the heart of what it means to be a Christian is an encounter with Jesus Christ, who heals us and sets us free. As St. Paul says, "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). 

Before we get into today’s Gospel, we need to put it into context. Our Gospel is from the beginning of John Chapter 8. At the end of Chapter 7 Jesus says: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him’” (Jn 7:37-38). Jesus wants all of us who are thirsting – for love, happiness, holiness, meaning – to come to him, because he will satisfy our desires and fill us with living waters (aka the Holy Spirit).  

Today the Scribes and Pharisees try to trap Jesus. A bit of advice: don’t try to trap or trick Jesus. It won’t work. They brought a woman to him who had been caught in adultery and try to test him by asking him what they should do to her.  

If he tells them to be merciful and not to stone her, he would be denying the Law of Moses (See Deut 22:22-24), which required that someone who commits adultery or other sins against the 10 Commandments be stoned to death.  

On the other hand, if he agrees that they should stone her, he would be going against Roman law, which forbade the Jewish people from carrying out executions. For example, when Pontius Pilate asks the Jews why they don’t judge Jesus by their own law, they respond, “We do not have the right to execute anyone” (See Jn 18:31). So they think they have Jesus trapped.  

Why did the Law of Moses require that those who broke the commandments be put to death? It is because they recognized the seriousness of sin. Sin not only does damage to the sinner, but also destroys society. The Jewish people were God’s chosen people, called to be a “holy nation” (see Ex 19:6; Mal 3:7; Is 43:20-21; 1 Pt 2:9).  Sin, on the other hand, causes division and destruction to the community, and therefore needed to be eliminated. Since Jesus died for our sins, we no longer eliminate the sinner, but eliminate sin by going to Jesus, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).  

We need to better recognize the seriousness of sin, especially mortal sin. Mortal Sin kills us. Not physically, but spiritually. It separates us from God, and if we die with unconfessed mortal sin, we risk spending eternity separated from God in Hell. And what is Mortal Sin? (See Catechism 1854-1864) It has three conditions (GFC = Good Friday Cross): 

1. Grave Matter: sins against the 10 Commandment of greater or lesser gravity.  
2. Full Knowledge: you have to know that something is wrong (and how wrong it is). Ignorance does not mean that it isn’t a sin, only that a person is less culpable.   
3. Complete Consent: you have to willfully choose to commit the sin, even knowing how grave it is. If a person is pressured, forced or addicted, this makes them less culpable, although it is still a sin.  

So what is Jesus’ response to their trap? He turns it around on them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). If they stone her, now they will be the ones breaking the Roman law. But if they walk away, they acknowledge their own sinfulness and that they are not fit to judge others of sin. 

On top of this, Jesus bends down and writes in the dirt twice. What does he write? John doesn’t tell us, but here’s what some of the best Scripture scholars in our Tradition have said.  

St. Ambrose and St. Augustine say that Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah, who said, “The sin of Judah …. Shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water” (Jer 17:1; 13). Remember that Jesus had just described himself as this fountain of living water in John 7. He is pointing out that they are guilty of an even greater sin: the rejection of the Messiah. And by bending down twice, Jesus teaches us to humble ourselves twice: both before criticizing anyone and after addressing the faults of our neighbor.  

The woman’s accusers all left, and Jesus “was left alone with the woman before him” (Jn 8:9). This is one of my favorite lines of Scripture. This is the heart of what it means to be a Christian. It’s an encounter with Jesus, the living God. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deus Caritas Est, 1). If we want to evangelize and share the faith with people, we cannot begin by accusing them of sin or with a list of prohibitions, but with leading them to an authentic encounter with Christ.  

This leads to a question: Why was Jesus so compassionate with sinners, especially sexual sinners? Could it be because he knew that behind their sins they were actually looking for him, but they had been deceived by counterfeit loves? How many of us are seeking the fulfillment of our desires – for love, friendship, happiness, holiness, meaning – but instead find only disappointment? Perhaps we have been looking in the wrong places too. Today, Jesus wants to stand alone before you, and show you that he is the fulfillment of your desires. He is the one to whom we should bring our thirst, so that “Rivers of living water will flow from within [you]” (Jn 7:38). Then you will be able to find the love, friendship, happiness, holiness and meaning that you so desire.   

Jesus asks her, “Has no one condemned you? … Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (Jn 8:10-11). Notice that he neither condemns the woman nor condones her sins. 

Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to seek those who are lost and save them. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17). 

But Jesus also didn’t come to condone sin. In fact, he expands the definition of adultery: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:27-28). How can we understand this?  

Today on the 5th Sunday of Lent, the Church invites us to cover up all the Crucifixes in the church until Good Friday. This is because we can fall into the tendency of taking the Cross for granted. The Church wants us to recognize with greater depth on Good Friday that there is real power in the Cross. Jesus didn’t die on the Cross to give us more rules. He died to set us free from sin so that we no longer need the rules. He died on the Cross so that our hearts would be filled with living water, which flows from Jesus’ pierced side. This water, the Holy Spirit, will re-form our hearts and desires, so that we can be free from sin. This is what an encounter with Christ does: it not only brings us forgiveness from our sins, but frees us from our sins, offering us hope for a brighter future. 

Today, Jesus wants to be alone with you. In this encounter with Jesus, you will discover your true identity, as loved by God, and you will discover the mission Jesus shares with you: to bring a thirsty world to him, the source of living water.  

Today's Readings