As I stated at the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Easter will mean so much more to us when and if we recognize how desperately we need a savior.

Sin destroys us; terrible are its effects. When we humbly admit we are sinners, when we feel the shame and guilt of our faults against God and against our neighbors, then we start to recognize what a savior we have in Jesus who comes to heal us, forgive us, and bring us to Himself.
In the Gospel today, we heard of the woman caught in adultery. In the Jewish law, there were three sins that carried an automatic death sentence. They were idolatry, or worshiping false gods, murder, and adultery.
So when the scribes and the Pharisees caught this woman in the act of adultery, they knew they had to stone her to death because she had broken the law.
In order to test Jesus, they decided to bring her to Him. They wanted to see if he was going to follow the law, and if not, they could accuse him of being an unfaithful Jew, and then he would be discredited.
Let’s take a look at this narrative now from the perspective of each character involved.
First you have the woman who commits the crime. She is guilty of breaking the sixth commandment, her sin is on full public display, she is surrounded by a group of men holding rocks, accusing her, ready to kill her. What do you suppose she felt in that moment? Certainly she felt fear for she was about to die. But also, she must have felt shame. Everyone knew what she did. Very likely she was not wearing clothes, she was naked, accused, afraid, shameful, and feeling intense guilt. The effects of sin were fully manifest in this adulterous woman. Clearly she deserved to die for her sins, after all this is the law of Moses and adultery is a terrible offense against God and the spouse. Clearly she felt broken and useless, full of shame. This is what sin does to us.
Then of course you have the accusers, the scribes and the Pharisees. They were full of self-righteousness. They knew their duty; they knew they had to kill this woman. Each of them was looking upon her with eyes of judgment and condemnation. “We must kill this whore of a woman.” Anger, contempt, pride, ready to cast the first stone, eager to carry out the sentence.
Then of course you have Jesus, the Son of God, and God Himself. He is going to manifest the Truth for every character in this narrative and for us as well.
There are two types of sinners in front of Him. First, the self-righteous, prideful scribes and Pharisees, and then also, the adulterous shameful, weak, and broken woman.
We are all sinners, which of these two types describes you? Are you like the self-righteous and prideful scribes and Pharisees? Do you hardly recognize that you have sinned or that anything is wrong with you? Is everything bad that occurs in your life the fault of someone else? Or are you like the broken and shameful woman, feeling guilt for the things you have done wrong, fearful that you might be condemned in your sinfulness?
Our Lord has an answer for both, and what he does is in the Gospel is something new. While not falling for the trap of the scribes and Pharisees to be able to accuse him of being unfaithful to the law, he is going to in fact, shame them for their self-righteousness while at the same time save the life of the woman who is already shamed because of her guilt.
First he bends down to write on the ground, and then stands and states to the ones who are prideful and self-righteous, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” That is to say to those of us who believe that we are always correct, that we are not the sinners but that others are, “go ahead, throw the first stone!” Now, you can imagine if Jesus had said this to one of the scribes and Pharisees when they were alone, it might be easy to throw that stone because no one is watching. But in a group of people who are self-righteous, who are very aware of the faults of others, including their fellow scribes and Pharisees, who are use to judging everyone, it would have been difficult to throw that stone. Thus in this, Jesus is able to shame the prideful. What is best for those who like to judge everyone is for them to drop their stones, and recognize the sin in their own lives first before they condemn others for their faults.
Then after he shames them for their pride, he turns his attention to the woman who feels the full effects of her shame. And instead of accusing her, he asks her, “Woman, who is accusing you?” She looks up and only sees Jesus; everyone else has gone away, so she says, “No one Sir.” And Jesus says, “Neither do I, now go and sin no more.” The only man left is Jesus and he is not an accuser.
To the ones who feel guilt and shame for their sins and stand before Jesus, he will forgive them, and to those who believe they need no forgiveness, he will shame them.
The Jews understood justice but they did not understand mercy. God wants them to understand that He IS mercy, and that self-righteous pride blinds us to this truth. St. Paul in the second reading tells us that in order to experience the Resurrection, we cannot rely on our own righteousness, but on the righteousness of God, following his example of humility. In this we move from being people who are quick to condemn to being people who are quick to forgive.
Except for the Blessed Mother, The Saints in Heaven were sinners while here on this journey. The same can be said true of the damned souls in Hell. The difference between the two is that the Saints recognized, in humility, their sinfulness, and then asked God for mercy while at the same time they tried to be obedient to His commandments. The damned in Hell felt they had no need of God, his mercy, or His commandments, they were self-righteous, and therefore they chose to reject God and the grace He offers through His Church. That’s why they are in Hell cursing God, not praising Him. God won’t forgive those who do not believe they have sinned or refuse to repent and change.
My brothers and sisters, let us humble before the Lord, recognize our sinfulness, and seek his forgiveness. He will heal us, he will forgive us; it is His greatest desire. We have two weeks until Easter, now is the time confess our sins and to return to Him with our whole hearts.