This piece is from The Stations of The Cross (published by Messenger) that traces the fourteen stations through the eyes of the woman at the centre of today’s Gospel Passage (John 8: 1-11)
I never forgot that moment. They may not have had the stones in their hands but they knew where to get them. They said I should be “stoned” – he didn’t seem to disagree but said “let anyone that hasn’t sinned throw the first stone”. I braced myself because I knew they were a holier than thou lot and felt sure the pelting would begin. It was amazing. Silence, then a bit of shuffling and I think I heard a few stones falling on the ground. I dared not look but, in time, had a sense of being on my own – well not fully, he was still there. Doodling on the ground. “Where are they?” He asked. “Have they all left? No stones, no condemnation!” “They’re all gone”, I said, daring not raise my voice above a whisper… that way, I thought he’d not hear the tears in my voice. “I don’t condemn you either, go away now and sin no more”. I never was too far away from him after that. I’m not sure he knows … but I saw the genuine article that day. He was different to anyone I’d ever met before or since. I was there on those last days near Calvary ….