Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 27, 2023
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
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?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
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.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
It is a quiet moment and deeply personal. Who will throw the first stone? As Christ sidesteps the accuser’s attempt to test him, the woman caught in adultery stands behind the line drawn in the sand. Time pauses as she awaits her fate. Since she is guilty, the punishment would surely come.
In the interim, did she gasp in horror or sigh with resignation? Perhaps, she dared to hope. Whatever her internal dialogue, Christ offered her another opportunity. The Lord drew a line that was not only symbolic protection from death but also the demarcation of a new beginning. Could she leave her past behind and fully embrace a new life?
The Lord’s joyful invitation announces that he came so that we might have life in abundance not only at Calvary but during our own moments of failure—no matter what side of the line of condemnation we stand on. Like the woman caught in adultery and those preparing to throw the first stone, we can surrender our sins and lay anything that prevents us from experiencing God’s mercy at his feet.
When we leave our sin, short-sighted perspective, grudges, bitterness, doubt, hopelessness, anger, arrogance, shame, guilt, self-condemnation, self-reliance, hurt, and ambitions with the Lord, he offers us resurrection renewal. He still “makes all things new.” (Rev. 21:5) We need only to receive and begin again.
Prayer
Good and loving God, we desire to live your law rightly, but at times we lose sight of your call for us to love. Have mercy on us, and grant us the courage and strength to act mercifully with everyone we meet. Convert our hearts, that we may draw others to you with our love. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. John of Egypt was known for walling himself up in a cave and staking his survival upon God and the goodness of others.
John was born in Egypt around the year 305, and spent his early adult years as a carpenter. When he was 25, he left everything he knew to seek God in the desert with prayer.
He spent a decade with a hermit, taking direction from him and learning self-surrender. The hermit, for example, had him water a dry stick every day for a year. John learned obedience and humility, and when the hermit died, John traveled and visited other monasteries for five years.
Finally, John settled at the top of a steep hill near Lycopolis, Egypt, and carved three small cells out of rock. He slept in one, used another for work and living space, and prayed in the third. Then he walled these cells up with himself inside and lived this way until he died in his 90s.
He left a small window through which he could speak to people and receive food and water they might bring him. He only ate after sunset, and his diet was mostly dried fruit and vegetables—nothing cooked over a fire.
He spent five days a week in conversation with God alone, and two days a week, he conversed with people seeking spiritual direction and advice. Crowds would gather on those two days to hear him preach.
Other ascetics and hermits saw him as an example and a father, and many people sought him out for wisdom, including the emperor. John was given the gift of seeing the future and knowing details from the lives of people he had never met. He could discern what was secretly hidden in people’s hearts.
Foreseeing his own death, he asked that no one visit him for three days, and he sealed off his window. He died peacefully, and his body was found in a position of prayer. He was known and admired by the great saints of his time, including St. Augustine and St. Jerome. The cell he lived in was discovered in the early 1900s.
The image above is from the book, Trophaeum Vitae Solitariae, by Thomas de Leu (1560-1612). Preserved at Pitts Theology Library at Emory University. Used with permission.
St. John of Egypt, you were the hermit whose life of prayer and self-surrender inspired other great saints—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. John of Egypt is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed February 13, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
