From the Pastor's Desk | April 6, 2025

Stewardship for Saints and Scholars

Just a quick update because the capital campaign has ended but you haven’t seen anything being done. I can promise you we are hard at work. We have entered into a contract with Mayotte Group Architects who have been out here a few times to take measurements, get a footprint, and take in ideas. They are currently working on schematics and drawings, and once this work is complete Requests for Proposals will go out to various builders to begin the bidding process. 

Gospel Reflection

We have come to the fifth week of Lent. Next week we enter Holy Week with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. In the Gospel today, we hear the encounter with the sinful woman - the woman caught up in adultery. Jesus was in the Temple area teaching and preaching, and the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught up in adultery. To shame her, they made her stand in the middle, ready to stone her to death. Then they asked Jesus what they should do - obey the law commanding her to be stoned or let her go? They were trying to catch Jesus in a trap so they could charge Him with disobeying the Law of Moses and thereby arrest Him. 
Jesus does something intriguing. He doesn’t answer them. Rather, He begins writing on the ground with His finger. Many miss this next point, that He actually does this twice. What was He doing? There are three explanations as to what Jesus was doing. None of us were there, obviously, and John didn’t include this detail in his Gospel account. 
The first explanation could be that, after the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus what should be done to the woman, Jesus ignores them by writing on the ground. This act could have been an act of indifference - Jesus’ way of ignoring the scribes and Pharisees. That is one possibility and probably the least convincing. 
The second explanation comes from St. Jerome and is fairly popular. In fact, you’ve probably heard it preached that Jesus was writing the sins of the scribes and Pharisees - the woman’s accusers - on the ground. That’s certainly another possibility and is a little more convincing than the first, especially since it is proffered by a Doctor of the Church. 
The third explanation is actually more widely accepted and is adopted by both St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. According to both, when Jesus writes on the ground, He is fulfilling a prophecy that first appears in the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter seventeen verses one and thirteen. Taken from the New American Bible Catholic Edition (NAB), verse one states, “The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus…” Verse thirteen states, “O Hope of Israel, LORD! All who forsake you shall be put to shame; The rebels shall be enrolled in the netherworld; they have forsaken the LORD, source of living waters.” A much better translation of the text can be found in the English Standard Version (ESV) or the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSV) because these translations are much closer to the original languages. In the ESV verse one states, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron.” Verse thirteen states, “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” 
Now, back up one chapter in John’s Gospel. Our Gospel today is taken from chapter eight. In the previous chapter (seven), Jesus says, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).
So, Jesus identifies Himself as this fountain of living water and anyone who forsakes the fountain of living water, well, their names shall be written in the earth as a condemnation and a judgment against them. What’s Jesus writing on the ground? What prophecy is he fulfilling? Could it be that He is writing the names of those scribes and Pharisees - the woman’s accusers; those who have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water? Could it be that they saw their names written on the earth and could not bear it so they walked away? Could it be that Jesus is making a judgment against them - condemning them for their sin of rejecting Jesus as Lord? 
I think the third explanation is the most plausible. But, what does that mean for us today as we get closer to Holy Week and the Lord’s Passion? Recall Ash Wednesday, when ashes were put on our foreheads and the priest or minister said, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Part of Lent is remembering that one day we will certainly die. When that time comes, do we want our names written on the ground or in the Book of Life? As we inch all the closer to Holy Week and ultimately Easter, let’s spend some time praying with that question. Is Jesus truly our Lord? If not, what needs to change? After all, the last words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are, “...go and sin no more.” 

 Know of my prayers for you all!
Fr. Ryan