1. Jesus went to the mount of Olives.
2. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3. And the Scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4. They say to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say you?
6. This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8. And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even to the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those your accusers? has no man condemned you?
11. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.
ALCUIN. Our Lord at the time of His passion used to spend the day in Jerusalem, preaching in the temple, and performing miracles, and return in the evening to Bethany, where He lodged with the sisters of Lazarus. Thus on the last day of the feast, having, according to His wont, preached the whole day in the temple, in the evening He went to the mount of Olives.
AUG. And where ought Christ to teach, except on the mount of Olives; on the mount of ointment, on the mount of chrism. For the name Christ is from chrism, chrism being the Greek word for unction. He has anointed us, for wrestling with the devil.
ALCUIN. The anointing with oil is a relief to the limbs, when wearied and in pain. The mount of Olives also denotes the height of our Lord's pity, olive in the Greek signifying pity. The qualities of oil are such as to fit in to this mystical meaning. For it floats above all other liquids: and the Psalmist says, Your mercy is over all Your works. And early in the morning, He came again into the temple: i.e. to denote the giving and unfolding of His mercy, i.e. the now dawning light of the New Testament in the faithful, that is, in His temple. His returning early in the morning, signifies the new rise of grace.
BEDE. And next it is signified, that after He began to dwell by grace in His temple, i.e. in the Church, men from all nations would believe in Him: And all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.
ALCUIN. The sitting down, represents the humility of His incarnation. And the people came to Him, when He sat down, i.e. after taking up human nature, and thereby becoming visible, many began to hear and believe on Him, only knowing Him as their friend and neighbor. But while these kind and simple persons are full of admiration at our Lord's discourse, the Scribes and Pharisees put questions to Him, not for the sake of instruction, but only to entangle the truth in their nets: And the Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say to Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, if the very act.
AUG. They had remarked upon, Him already, as being over lenient. Of Him indeed it had I been prophesied, Ride on because of the word of truth, of meekness, and of righteousness. So as a teacher He exhibited truth, as a deliverer meekness, as a judge righteousness. When He spoke, His truth was acknowledged; when against His enemies He used no violence, His meekness was praised. So they raised the scandal on the score of justice For they said among themselves, If He decide to let her go He will not do justice; for the law cannot command what is unjust: Now Moses in the law commanded as, that such should be stoned: but to maintain His meekness, which has made Him already so acceptable to the people, He must decide to let her go. Wherefore they demand His opinion: And what say You? hoping to find an occasion to accuse Him, as a transgressor of the law: And this they said tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him. But our Lord in His answer both maintained His justice, and departed not from meekness. Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.
AUG. As if to signify that such persons were to be written in earth, not in heaven, where He told His disciples they should rejoice they were v written. Or His bowing His head (to write on the ground), is an expression of humility; the writing on the ground signifying that His law was written on the earth which bore fruit, not on the barren stone, as before.
ALCUIN. The ground denotes the human heart, which yields the fruit either of good or of bad actions: the finger jointed and flexible, discretion. He instructs us then, when we see any faults in our neighbors, not immediately and rashly to condemn them, but after searching our own hearts to begin with, to examine them attentively with the finger of discretion.
BEDE. His writing with His finger on the ground perhaps showed, that it was He who had written the law on stone.
So when they continued asking Him, He lifted Himself up.
AUG. He did not say, Stone her not, lest He should seem to speak contrary to the law. But God forbid that He should say, Stone her; for He came not to destroy that which He found, but to seek that which was lost. What then did He answer? He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. This is the voice of justice. Let the sinner be punished, but not by sinners; the law carried into effect, but not by transgressors of the law.
GREG. For he who judges not himself first, cannot know how to judge correctly in the case of another. For though He know what the offense is, from being told, yet He cannot judge of another's deserts, who supposing himself innocent, will not apply the rule of justice to himself.
AUG. Having with the weapon of justice smitten them, He deigned not even to look on the fallen, but averted His eyes: And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
ALCUIN. This is like our Lord; while His eyes are fixed, and He seems attending to something else, He gives the bystanders an opportunity of retiring: a tacit admonition to us to consider always both before we condemn a brother for a sin, and after we have punished him, whether we are not guilty ourselves of the same fault, or others as bad.
AUG. Thus smitten then with the voice of justice, as with a weapon, they examine themselves, find themselves guilty, and one by one retire: And they which heard it, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest.
GLOSS. The more guilty of them, perhaps, or those who were more conscious of their faults.
AUG. There were left however two, the pitiable, and the pitiful, And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst: the woman, you may suppose, in great alarm, expecting punishment from one in whom no sin could be found. But He who had repelled her adversaries with there word of justice, lifted on her the eyes of mercy, and asked; When Jesus had lifted Himself up, and saw none but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are these your accusers? Has no man condemned you? She said, No man, Lord. We heard above the voice of justice; let us hear now that of mercy: Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you; I, who you feared would condemn you, because You found no fault in me. What then Lord? Do You favor sin? No, surely. Listen to what follows, Go, and sin no more. So then our Lord condemned sin, but not the sinner. For did He favor sin, He would have said, Go, and live as you will: depend on my deliverance: howsoever great your sins be, it matters not: I will deliver you from hell, and its tormentors. But He did not say this. Let those attend, who love the Lord's mercy, and fear His truth. Truly, Gracious and righteous is the Lord.
Catena Aurea John 8
Catholic Culture
Lent: April 3rd
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
MASS READINGS
April 03, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
O God, by whose wondrous grace we are enriched with every blessing, grant us so to pass from former ways to newness of life, that we may be made ready for the glory of the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Old Calendar: St. Richard of Chichester, bishop (Hist)
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12)." Like the forty days' fast of the Ninevites, our Lent continues in complete confidence in divine mercy; but our hope is founded not so much on our poor efforts at penance but on the passion of our Savior. No one is excluded from the redemption effected by the Blood of Christ; His grace is promised to all who believe in Him.
Historically today is the feast of St. Richard of Chichester also known as Richard de Wych, a saint canonized 1262 who was Bishop of Chichester.
Stational Church
Meditation
What do we do for the salvation of souls? It is true that we pray for one another, offer a few words of comfort, and do each other slight favors; but we do little more. Christ was more generous. He endured the crowning of thorns and dragged the heavy cross to Calvary. We pamper our bodies as if they were our last end. We prefer to have our heads crowned with laurels and roses. We are impatient and consider ourselves unfortunate whenever we are called on to carry a mere splinter of the cross of Christ. Are we one in spirit with Him?
Now, during Passiontide, we must begin to love and treasure pain and suffering. In the cross, in suffering, in our crucifixion with Christ, we shall find salvation. For Him and with Him we should bear all the slight injustices committed against us. For Him we should suffer freely and willingly the unpleasant and disagreeable things that occur to us. But our faith is weak. We flee from the cross instead of holding it dear, instead of loving it and welcoming it as our Savior did.
What St. Paul says of many Christians of his day is equally true of many in our time: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18 f.).
Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
St. Richard of Chichester
St Richard was born at the manor of Wiche, famous for its salt wells, four miles from Worcester, being second son to Richard and Alice de Wiche. In order to keep faithfully his baptismal vows, he from his infancy always manifested the utmost dislike to frivalous diversions, and ever held in the highest contempt all worldly pomp: instead of which his attention was wholly employed in establishing for himself a solid foundation of virtue and learning. Every opportunity of serving others he regarded as his happiness and gain.
The unfortunate situation of his eldest brother’s affairs gave him an occasion of exercising his benevolent disposition. Richard condescended to become his brother’s servant, undertook the management of his farms, and by his industry and generosity effectually retrieved his brother’s previously distressed circumstances.
Having completed this good work, he resumed at Paris those studies he had begun at Oxford, leading with two select companions a life of piety and mortification, generally contenting himself with coarse bread and simple water for his diet; except that on Sundays and on particular festival she would, in condescendence to some visitors, allow himself a little meat or fish.
Upon his return to England, he proceeded master of arts at Oxford, from whence he went to Bologna, in Italy, where he applied himself to the study of canon law, and was appointed public professor of that science. After having taught there a short time, he returned to Oxford, and, on account of his merit, was soon promoted to the dignity of chancellor in that university.
St. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, having the happiness of gaining him for his diocese, appointed him his chancellor, and intrusted him with the chief direction of his archbishopric; and Richard was the faithful imitator of his patron’s piety and devotions. The principal use he made of his revenues was to employ them to charitable purposes, nor would he on any terms be prevailed on to accept the least present in the execution of his office as ecclesiastical judge.
He accompanied his holy prelate in his banishment into France, and after his blessed death at Pontigni, retired into a convent of Dominican friars in Orleans. Having in that solitude employed his time in improving himself in theological studies, and received the order of priesthood, he returned to England to serve a private curacy, in the diocess of Canterbury. Boniface, who had succeeded St. Edmund in that metropolitan see, compelled him to resume his office of chancellor with the care of his whole diocese.
Ralph Nevil, bishop of Chichester, dying in 1244, King Henry III recommended to that see an unworthy court favourite, called Robert Passelew: the archbishop and other prelates declared the person not qualified, and the presentation void, and preferred Richard de Wiche to that dignity. He was consecrated in 1245. But the king seized his temporalities, and the saint suffered many hardships and persecutions from him and his officers, during two years, till his majesty granted him a repreieve upon which he recovered his revenues, but much impaired.
Afterwards having pleaded his cause at Rome before Pope Innocent IV against the king’s deputies, and obtained a sentence confirming his election, he had permitted no persecution, fatigue, or difficulty to excuse him to himself for the omission of any part of his duty to his flock: so now, the chief obstacles being removed, he redoubled his fervour and attention. He in person visited the sick, buried the dead, and sought out and relieved the poor. When his steward complained that his alms exceeded his income: “then,” said he, “sell my plate and my horse.”
Having suffered a great loss by fire, instead of being more sparing in his charities, he said, “Perhaps God sent us this loss to punish our covetousness;” and ordered upon the spot more abundant alms to be given than usual. Such was the ardour of his devotion, that he lived as it were in the perpetual contemplation of heavenly things. He preached the word of God to his flock with that unction and success, which only an eminent spirit of prayer could produce. The affronts which he received, he always repaid with favours, and enmity with singular marks of charity.
In maintaining discipline he was inflexible, especially in chastising crimes in the clergy: no intercession of the king, archbishop, and several other prelates could prevail with him to mitigate the punishment of a priest who had sinned against chastity. Yet penitent sinners he received with inexpressible tenderness and charity.
Whilst he was employed in preaching a holy war against the Saracens, being commissioned thereto by the pope, he fell sick of a fever, foretold his own death, and prepared himself for it by the most melting ejaculations of divine love and thanksgiving. He died in an hospital at Dover, called God’s House, on the 3rd of April, in the year of our Lord 1253, of his episcopal dignity the ninth, of his age the fifty-sixth.
His body was conveyed to Chichester, and interred before the altar which he himself had consecrated in his cathedral to the memory of St. Edmund. It was removed to a more honourable place in 1276, on the 16th of June, on which day our ancestors commemorated his translation. The fame of miraculous cures of paralytic and other distempers, and of three persons raised to life at his tomb, moved the pope to appoint commissaries to inquire into the truth of these reports, before whom many of these miracles were authentically proved upon the spot; and the saint was solemnly canonized by Urban IV. in 1262.
Excerpted from The Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler (1866)
The Word Among Us
Meditation: John 8:1-11
5th Week of Lent
Neither do I condemn you. (John 8:11)
According to Jewish law, adultery was a capital crime punishable by death (Leviticus 20:10). But according to Roman law—which governed occupied Palestine—Jews had no authority to put a man to death. So if Jesus had agreed with the Pharisees, he would have violated the Roman law. But if he had disagreed, he would have been identified as a false teacher. Jesus’ opponents must have felt very secure about their trap!
Once again, Jesus’ enemies underestimated him. He needed only one sentence to silence them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).
Why did this one sentence have such a dramatic impact? Because Jesus made it clear that whatever judgment they leveled against this woman for her sin would be leveled against them for their own sins. If she were condemned, they would be condemned too. There were only two responses: to confess their sins or to walk away. Since they were unwilling to repent, they walked away, and the woman lived.
They should have stayed. That’s what the woman did, and her life was changed. Jesus showered her with grace and washed away her sins. Even though she was guilty, Jesus issued a decree of divine forgiveness and set her on a new path.
John Newton, the eighteenth-century writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” learned this lesson well. He was sailing a ship in the midst of a violent storm that had all but sunk the vessel. Terrified, he called out to God for mercy, and the winds calmed down immediately.
Newton was a slave trader. He focused almost exclusively on material gain and cared little about the people he put into chains. After experiencing God’s mercy so dramatically, he gave his life to Jesus and became a tireless servant of the Lord, witnessing about what God had done for him.
Like John Newton, we will feel moved to change our lives to the degree to which we experience God’s mercy. We will remember that, like the woman caught in adultery, we too deserve punishment but have been given mercy, peace, and life instead.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on my soul.”
Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62
Psalm 23:1-6
Regnum Christi
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Father Steven Reilly, LC
John 8:1-11
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 anymore.”
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you though I often forget to exercise my faith. I trust in you, though I often lose my peace over little matters. I love you, though I miss so many opportunities to exercise my love throughout the day because I get wrapped up in myself. I am so grateful to realize that you smile on me in my weakness and misery and only desire the good for me in return.
Petition: Lord, help me to be faithful in my marriage.
1. “They Have No Wine.” The words of the Blessed Mother — “they have no wine” (see John 2:3) — have a relevance that is as permanent as it is poignant. The wedding feast ran out of wine for the same reasons as many marriages do: lack of awareness, a failure to anticipate needs, taking things for granted. Few events manifest the “lack of wine” more profoundly than adultery. We cannot know all the circumstances surrounding the act of adultery of the woman in today’s Gospel reading. Perhaps she was “more sinned against than sinning.” But whatever emotional pain, neglect or temptation brought her down, Jesus’ formula is simple: “Go and from now on do not sin anymore.” Easier said than done for a marriage now beyond repair? Jesus isn’t just a therapist. He is God. Remember that he turned water into wine.
2. The Blessing of Accountability: The woman probably felt dead already, filled with terror as she was led through the streets to the taunts and whistling of bystanders. We feel compassion for her, precisely because we know that we, too, are sinners. Jesus’ mercy towards her inspires us, because love stirs our hearts at a far deeper level than fear. But we also know that, as disagreeably self-righteous as those elders were, getting caught was a good thing for the woman. Through it, she was able to experience the mercy of Christ and have another chance. Marriages don’t thrive when there are dark corners and hidden places that are off-limits to one’s spouse. Accountability and transparency, on the other hand, continually engender that most precious of marital virtues: trust. The daily and consistent effort to be accountable, to embrace “mutual submission” (Cf. Ephesians 5:21), and constantly to make “trust deposits” in the love bank account are the best insurance against marital shipwreck.
3. Second Chances: “Go and from now on do not sin any more”: words both stirring and challenging. What happened after that? That’s a complicated question because second chances in marriage involve two people. Having received a vocation to become “one flesh,” both spouses need to embrace the need to accept God’s grace, accept responsibility, forgive, and work together to overcome whatever wound has been inflicted on their relationship. This mutual work can only begin with oneself. That’s why Jesus says, “Do not sin anymore.” In fact, changing one’s own heart, centering it on God and then striving to be the best husband or wife one can be, is frequently the best way to stir things up positively for the relationship as a whole. Jesus is all about second chances. When two people stand before the altar to pledge their love, it is indissoluble. But that’s not only about the bond between them. It’s also the bond between them and Christ. “Do whatever he tells you!”
Conversation with Christ: Lord, you know how many tests and temptations we are subject to. Give us strength! Don’t allow the corrosive effects of time to wear down our relationships. Help us to be faithful to each other and to you.
Resolution: I will make a special spiritual sacrifice today for my marriage (or for the faithfulness of married couples if I am unmarried.)
Image: Statue of Saint Benedict the Moor | Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil | photo by Mateus Hidalgo 
