Monday April 3
One of the Talmudic principles is paradoxical, but very revelatory: “If everyone is in agreement to condemn someone accused, release him, for he must be innocent.” Unanimity in human groups is suspect, for it could often be a sign of blind conformity and unwillingness to explore the truth by oneself. The unanimity in the condemnation of Susanna was one such case where the innocence of the victim was drowned in the popular din. Daniel was brave enough to challenge the unanimity and open the eyes of the people. Do we have similar courage to stand apart from the crowd and challenge false unanimities?
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A humiliated woman, caught in adultery, runs the risk of being lynched in the center of the square. A cruel and hypocritical crowd surrounds her. Jesus seems distant but the scribes and Pharisees want to put him in trouble. The word of Jesus is succinct: he who has not sinned cast the first stone. Only Jesus and the adulteress are left in the square after that. As St. Augustine would say, all that’s left was misery and mercy. The episode is a warning against hypocrisy, a call to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and to stone sin and not the sinner.
