“We should choose leaders who will govern with integrity, not hypocrisy.”
The Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, as the gospel last week on the prodigal son, once again highlights the infinite mercy and compassion of God. It narrates an incident where an adulterous woman was presented before the Lord by the Pharisees and scribes. They asked him if the punishment was to stone her to death.
And this they asked Jesus to challenge him into disobeying the Law of Moses. To say that the woman be stoned to death is to go against the character of Jesus, but then again to refrain from doing so is to defy the law. Here, Jesus’ enemies were trying to set him up into a lose-lose situation.
But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When they continued asking him, he lifted himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they, hearing this, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? When the woman replied No, Jesus said: to her: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.
Under the Mosaic law, specifically the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, adultery was considered a serious offense which merited the capital punishment of death by stoning. The scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus about what he would do with the adulterous woman to set a trap and find a reason to accuse him. But the Lord, knowing their intent, answered his detractors with a very ingenious solution to the moral quandary presented. He who has no sin cast the first stone, was his reply to them, knowing how hypocritical and uncompromising the
Pharisees and scribes were about the law.
This event in the life of Jesus gives us two different perspectives of looking at the law of God.
From the perspective of Jesus, the spirit of the law takes precedence over what is written. God, being who he is, the law cannot be read apart from his nature, which is love, mercy, and compassion. In the scripture, Jesus, who is without sin, did not condemn the adulteress. On the contrary, he extended mercy to the sinner but, at the same time, exhorted her to mend her ways. By his answer, Jesus was telling his listeners to obey the law but at the same time temper it with mercy and compassion. Ultimately, it was Jesus’ desire to lead the sinner to the path of righteousness, not to condemn her.
From the perspective of the Pharisees, the law was but an instrument to assert authority, a device to protect their standing in the community. Yet for all their sanctimonious talk about legality, these bunch of “holy persons” did everything to avoid the law when it suited them. They followed the law only for show. In this particular occasion, they pretended to be willing to mete the punishment prescribed by Moses,. i.e/ to severely punish the adulterous woman, yet they did so only because of their burning desire for revenge, and envy at the growing popularity of the Messiah.
In electing public officials for the May 9 polls, we must be very careful to choose only the candidates who practice what they preach, much unlike the Pharisees. Leaders who will govern with integrity, not hypocrisy. They lead with pure intentions, setting good examples to inspire others to follow. And like Jesus himself, govern with mercy and a just hand. We must avoid vindictive leaders who weaponized law to get even at their opponents or use them for self-promotion and advancement. This is what President Duterte did to Senator Leila De Lima.
Justice and mercy must come together. As has often been chanted, there is no peace without justice. Mercy is available to all persons who repent, but justice and accountability will still be needed.
Pope Francis, in The Name of God Is Mercy which document his conversations with Andrea Tornielli, summarizes this very well:
“We need to ask for the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners. The more we acknowledge that we are in need, the more shame and humility we feel, the sooner we will feel his embrace of grace. Jesus waits for us, he goes ahead of us, he extends his hand to us, he is patient with us. God is faithful. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God. Just by looking at him, just by raising our eyes from ourselves and our wounds, we leave an opening for the action of his grace. Jesus performs miracles with our sins, with what we are, with our nothingness, with our wretchedness.”
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