Media Trial

When we want to accuse someone, we are sure to find one. The helpless victims are often the poor, the weak, and the marginalized. Those who wield power and the media houses, make the victims often stand in front of the cameras and a media trial in front of the whole nation  seems to be the style of the day.

Nothing has changed in the last two thousand years. The Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery and make her stand “in front of everyone”. They address Jesus as ‘ Master’. Only the day before they called him an ‘imposter’. Jesus cannot so easily be bluffed by their pretense and exterior wry smile. He knows their intentions and motives.

The crime is serious. The woman is guilty.  No room to plead not guilty. Accusers are many.  The victim is helpless. No one to argue her case. More than her death, they want Jesus to be caught. They bring an indefensible case in front of him.

 Jesus does not argue for her innocence. He wants the right person to execute the sentence.  He asks for the one not guilty of the same crime to come forward to carry out the execution. “Let him who has no sin be the first to throw a stone at her”. Then he keeps silence and bends down and scribbles in the sand a few names and  dates,  in case the Pharisees  have any doubt about his knowledge of them. Jesus unlike the leaders does not expose their case in front of all.  He does not confront them. By bending down he gives them an escape route.

They came to condemn. They stood condemned. They came to expose the sin of the woman. Their sins were exposed. The Pharisees caught the woman.  Jesus caught the Pharisees. They expected the eldest to come forward.  They quit first.   Once seniors quit, juniors follow.

 So often, as in this case, it is the one guilty of the same sin who is most zealous in condemning and accusing.  It is those who indulge in sin who are most severe in condemnation. One condemns to  cover up the insecurity, the sin that one has committed. If we only knew every time we condemn we are proclaiming loud what is hidden deep down in ourselves.    

Let us be wise like the leaders of the Pharisees. Quietly drop the stone and quit. Don’t condemn, you will not be condemned.

Only one is left with the woman all the others quit. Only one is qualified to throw the stone. He does not condemn. He helps her onto her feet and tells her to go home and sin no more. No penance. No how many times.  A few drops of contrite tears washed away all her sins.

-        Fr T.V. George sdb