“Jesus and the Fallen Woman:”

The woman caught in adultery described in last weekend’s Gospel has inspired a wide variety of Christian art. One of the most striking is “Jesus and the Fallen Woman,” by Lucas Cranach, (c. 1570), now exhibited - as is Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son,”, that other inspiring scene of mercy and forgiveness- in The Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg. At the front centre of the painting we see Jesus and the woman. The artist captures that moment when Jesus turns toward the accusers and challenges those without sin to cast a stone. His expression is stern but troubled and his right hand reaches out toward the woman. Remarkably, the woman is not bowed to the ground in front of Jesus as in most other art work on this theme , but is standing at his left. She is young, with eyes closed, looking forlorn, lost and resigned to her fate. Can you get even a faint hint of the despair, the anguish, the ravaging shame, and hopelessness that gripped this wretch of a creature, this “soiled plaything of men” as they came dragging her into the presence of Jesus.

Her head is inclined toward Jesus’ shoulder, and her hand rests on his arm. As you follow the lines of the painting look how her right hand is intimately entwined with the left hand of Jesus in a gesture of exquisite tenderness. The kind hands of mercy are joined to the hands of an ashamed woman facing execution. Jesus and the young woman in Cranach’s painting can be our guides through next week, Holy Week. With heads inclined toward Christ and hands intertwined with his, let us go forward both as forgiven sinners and his intimate companions.

And so we returned to the theme of mercy last weekend with the words of Jesus ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone’ or ‘who am I to judge’ as Pope Francis said recently. Remember when you point the finger at someone, three fingers point back at you in self condemnation. The expression ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ -or even less self-righteously- ‘there go I’ should be often on our lips. People love stories. Jesus often used them to make his point. Here are two on mercy I told last weekend.

A woman came to the Parish Priest and reported that Jesus was appearing to her. ‘The next time he appears ask him to tell you a sin that I have committed’ he told her as a test. A week later the woman came to the priest again. ‘Well, did Jesus appear to you again?’ he asked ‘What sin did he tell you I have committed?’ The woman replied. ‘He said he doesn’t remember’.

People of my age will remember John Profumo who was a highly respected cabinet minister in the British Government. He had an affair with a call girl in London who, in turn, was involved with Russian spies. It caused a terrible scandal. To make matters worse he denied it in Parliament. A few weeks later he went to the Prime Minister and admitted that he had lied and he resigned his post. He spent his years working with the poor and homeless in London. When he was sixty the Queen sent for him and awarded him a civic honour; he, the repentant sinner, was again among the most distinguished citizens of her realm! He was restored.!

A STONE"

You know, there are a lot of stones and rocks in the Bible other than those in the hands of the crowd ready to stone a person to death. There's Peter the Rock who sank like a stone when tried to walk on water. There are the stones used to build the Temple. There is the stone rejected by the builder which had pride of place as the cornerstone and the mill –stone to be hung around the neck of those who scandalise the young. There are the stones which Jesus said would break into song this coming weekend of Palm Sunday if the people didn't sing. Then a week later we have the stone that sealed the tomb and which was rolled away so we could find that no mere grave could hold the Son of God.

And then there’s this cold hard stone I’m still holding in my heart, ready to throw at someone who crosses me, who annoys me , who ‘gets my gander up’- the heaviest stone of all!

A word of wisdom:

Be compassionate: most people are fighting an inner struggle you cannot see.

Joke

When the little old lady fronted up to the bookie for a pay out he was perplexed. ‘You must study the form’ he said. ‘Oh no’ she said ‘I just stick a pin in the paper’ ‘But how have you managed to pick four winners in one afternoon?’ ‘Oh today I used a fork,’ she explained

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