The Woman Caught in Adultery and Pope Francis

The story of the Woman Caught in Adultery is a short story in the Gospel of John. It actually matches up rather well, in some ways, with the woman at the well, Saint Photini. In both stories, Jesus has a clear opportunity to condemn both women, and instead of condemning them, he speaks in circumlocutions. What do I mean with circumlocutions? Well, in the the story of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus is directly confronted with a woman clearly in sin. Clearly, the scribes and Pharisees felt that they had placed Jesus in the position of either denying his love for the world by condemning her to be stoned or of denying his full observance of the Law by not having the woman stoned. He answered by using a circumlocution that places his potential accusers in their own even more difficult position. In the case of the woman at the well, Jesus uses various circumlocutions to avoid having to openly call her a sinner, so that he can have the opportunity to evangelize her. In both cases, direct confrontation is avoided for the sake of bringing the person into the Kingdom.

In the same way, Pope Francis has been using circumlocutory language and prophetic actions in order to communicate what is true without the necessity to condemn those whom he came to visit. Conservative and liberal Catholics have both been wanting the Pope to make clearly condemnatory statements about [fill in the blank] doctrine. But the Pope has not. Instead, he has gone to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor, who have a lawsuit going against the Affordable Care Act. He told the Congress (and others) to defend life at every stage of development, but just as conservatives were about to raise a heavy cheer, he said that he was also speaking about the death penalty. In one set of statements, he disarms both the left and the right. He speaks about both the importance of the family and the need to open our doors to immigrants. And, yet, at every stage, he speaks in ways which are circumlocutory so as to give room for people to think, to reflect, and to come to a decision. This is the same way that Jesus treated both the woman caught in adultery and the woman at the well.

As a result, Pope Francis has garnered a hearing from a vast number of people. And, into that available hearing space, he has indeed communicated the Catholic faith. Not surprisingly, he has his detractors, but they tend to be the minority. And, they tend to be detractors who are upset because he has not more clearly stated a doctrine, because he has not directly condemned several groups of people. And, yet, like the scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman caught in adultery, the people doing the condemning have no inner conception of their own sin. If you are on the left, generally you tend to be weak on abortion. If you are on the right, pro-life means only until they are born, and then they are on their own. While there is no doubt that these are generalizations, nevertheless, many generalizations have a base of truth behind them, even if they end up being exaggerated generalizations. In the same way, Pope Francis, using his circumlocutions, has pointed out the inconsistent behavior of Christians both on the left and the right.

To various Americans of varied backgrounds, he has been bringing them to think about what religious freedom and diversity really mean, about the need to not use your victories to limit or clamp down on others, etc. By using circumlocutions, he has more effectively communicated various facets of the Gospel and of the social callings of the Church than many straightforward teachers. Americans talk about speaking the truth in love, by which they mean confronting someone while telling them you love them. Or, the idea that the loving thing to do is to go face to face with someone. But, look at how often Jesus avoided going face to face. As Americans, we want to concentrate on Jesus in the Temple whipping the moneychangers. But, the reality of many of Jesus’ encounters was that he dined with sinners and tax collectors. You do not manage to do that if you are constantly and directly confronting them about their sin. We love to preach about Christ with the prostitutes and sinners without considering what it was about the way in which he communicated that made it tolerable to have him as a guest! Frankly, many Christians in America today would never be welcomed among prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors because of the condemnation that we would be expressing toward them, while calling it tough love.

And, no, as a Christian you do not get to use the excuse that everyone is a scribe and a Pharisee because they disagree with you. That is an easy excuse that allows you to confront people without having to truly reach out to them. Nor do you get to use the excuse that everyone, except your particular group, is a nominal Christian so that you have the excuse you need to excoriate them for their failure to follow the true faith. Almost all of the people that Jesus met (with some exceptions in Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, and the Decapolis) would have been classified as nominal Jews, and yet Jesus treated them as though they were simply and only Jews. There was no attempt by himself to place himself on a higher plane than them. This is why he was always invited to people’s home. Tell me, when was the last time that you were invited to the home of a non-Christian or a nominal Christian so that they could talk to you about what you believe? If that has never happened, then your Christ-like faith is, uhm, very seriously lacking. Maybe your sin was listed among the sins that Jesus listed on the ground during the episode of the woman caught in adultery.

I am learning a lot from Pope Francis. He has yet to directly violate any Roman Catholic doctrine. He has communicated them by his actions. And, he has also communicated them by circumlocutory statements. Maybe we need to learn how to do it like Pope Francis. It is undoubtedly true that if we are never invited to the home of the sinner nor are beloved of the “nominal” that this probably means that we are a scribe or a Pharisee.