John 8: 1-11 (Monday, March 10, 2008)

“GO AND FROM NOW ON, DO NOT SIN ANY MORE”

Jesus Christ uses these powerful words. These words of healing; these words of consolation; these words of challenge in the gospel of today. Let us for a moment imagine how this woman felt when she heard Jesus say to her, “neither do I condemn you.” This is a woman that was about to be stoned to death. She committed one of the worst crimes in Jewish law. The three capital sins in Jewish law are Idolatry, murder and adultery. These sins were punishable by death.

Adultery simply means unfaithfulness. In Christian tradition, we refer to this sin of unfaithfulness as Mortal sin. When we are unfaithful to God, we have committed a mortal sin. Mortal sin is a turning away from God and choosing something else; it is a rejection of Jesus. Mortal sin is deadly, because it separates us from God. There are three things that make a sin mortal: it is a grave matter, you know it is a sin and you willfully go ahead to commit it. At one point or the other in our lives, we have fallen into this kind of sin. And some people are living in this sin, separating themselves from Jesus Christ. This period of lent, it is an opportunity for us to turn once more towards God and turn away from our unfaithfulness.
In what ways have you been unfaithful to God?