Throughout the Lenten season, we’ll be posting reflections for holy days and Sundays. These reflections are taken from this year’s Lenten reflection booklet, Return to me with all your heart which includes all-new reflections written by Ralph McCloud, and from previous Lenten reflection booklets, like the one below, written by the late Antonia (Tonie) Malone in 2016 for that year’s Lenten booklet, “Everything is grace.” Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2025 webpage.
REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, APRIL 6, 2025
by Antonia Malone
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Isaiah 43:16-21 | Philippians 3:8-14 | John 8:1-11
“Let the one among you who is without sin, be the first to cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7)
“See, I am doing something new.” (Isaiah 43:19)
This is probably one of the few stories in the lectionary where the original “Let the man among you…” may be more accurate, for surely there were no women preparing to throw stones. It was the Pharisees and the scribes who brought the woman to Jesus demanding that she be stoned as they claimed Moses commanded in the law; and, if there were women in the Temple area, they were no doubt cowering in fear, as another one of their gender was about to be subjected to the violence of the dominant patriarchy. No mention is made of the man involved, and one might have expected Jesus to note this injustice, as the Mosaic law counsels that in cases of adultery, both the man and the woman be put to death (Leviticus 20:10). But Jesus recognized the trap, and neatly evaded it by suggesting that the man among them who was without sin be the first to cast a stone at her. And to their faint credit, they melted away, after which Jesus also declined to condemn her. (Do I hear an echo of Pope Francis’ refusal to judge?)
In today’s first reading, Isaiah cautions the chosen people that God is calling them to remember not the ways of the past but, “see, I am doing something new!” The refusal to participate in violence was something new in first century Palestine. Neither the Pharisees nor the woman were condemned by Jesus who suggests that both move forward in the holiness the Torah truly demands; the holiness reached through self-examination and forgiveness; that is fulfilled in love of God and neighbor, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or place in the hierarchical order.
For reflection
- Am I willing to forgive both the perpetrators and the victims of violence?
- In what areas of life do I find myself judgmental?
>> Join us on Monday, April 7, for the final Pax Christi USA Lenten prayer service for 2025. Click here to register.
Antonia (Tonie) Malone, who died in 2019, was a long-time Pax Christi USA leader, a founder of Pax Christi New Jersey, member of the national council, editor of the Catholic Peace Voice (then the national newsletter), and Ambassador of Peace.