There’s an amusing story about a young priest who was assigned to a small, far-flung parish. On his first days, as he zealously did his pastoral chore of hearing confessions, he noted that many of his penitents confessed: “I fell down the bridge.”

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The parish priest didn’t know that it was a code, a euphemistic term which meant: “I committed adultery.”

Following several more confessions of that particular “sin,” the parish priest decided to see the town mayor in order that he would do something about that bridge.

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When the mayor heard the priest’s report, he kept on laughing, knowing what it meant. “Why ask about it, Father?” he said.

The priest replied: “Because even your wife confessed she fell down the bridge three times!” The mayor gulped and his face suddenly turned serious.

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The gospel episode in this 5th Sunday of Lent relates about a woman who “fell down the bridge” and was reportedly caught “in the very act of adultery”(John 8,4).

Just how the accusers managed to catch her in the “very act” induces one to think that these sanctimonious people were a bunch of “peeping Toms.”

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Now these legal experts and pious religious leaders were challenging Jesus to hand down His verdict. The truth of the matter is that it was a well-laid-out trap.

Whichever opinion He volunteered, He would be caught in the dilemma. If He recommended leniency, He would break the law of Moses which meted death by stoning to such public sinners. If He acceded to the Mosaic law of death penalty, He would be branded as a double-talking Teacher who Preached forgiveness but did not practice it.

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The scribes and Pharisees relished the thought that they would at last snare Jesus in their trap. But knowing their wicked intention, Jesus did not say a word. Instead He stooped down and scribbled on the ground with His finger. (Incidentally, this is the first recorded instance that our Lord ever wrote).

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Biblical scholars speculate that He scribbled the sins of the woman’s accusers; a psychology scholar opined that it was a face-saving device for the woman’s tormentors to “get lost” as the Lord challenged them: “He who has no sin among you let him cast the first stone.”

It was an impressive way to cut down the self-righteous accusers and masterfully escape the entrapment laid out by the scheming Pharisees.

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CONDEMNING OTHERS. One important lesson we can learn from the gospel story concerns judging others. Deep inside we may, indeed, condemn the way the scribes and Pharisees treated the poor woman in the gospel but are we not much different than they at times?

For instance, we are guilty of pharisaism when we look down on “public” sinners as “mababang uri” or talk about the faults of others or when we gossip about broken marriages of relatives and neighbors.

Subconsciously, we pat our back and say, “Thank God I’m not like them.”

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Another lesson we can learn is the hope and joy that it is an understanding God who will judge us eventually and not one of our fellow human beings who are much too quick to condemn.

One final lesson is that God’s infinite mercy should not induce us to be indifferent or careless about sin in our lives.

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Some might think that since God is so kind and forgiving, this gives us “license” to go on committing sins. Remember Christ’s words: “Go and sin no more.” Rather, it should make us realize the need for sincere repentance, to which we are called – especially in this season of Lent.

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FAMILY TV MASS – is aired by the SVD Mission Communications Foundation, Inc. (MCFI) on IBC 13 at 9-10 a.m. every Sunday.

This Sunday’s sponsor: Centro Escolar University (CEU).

For Mass intentions and donations, call Brian at Christ the King Seminary (cf. tel. directory) or e-mail: familytv.mass@yahoo.com.