Having had two older brothers I remember first days at school both primary and secondary were always marked with a comment from the teacher I hope you are more like that brother and not the other one.  When you were a kid in school, did you ever wonder if the teachers compared “notes,” if they ever “warned” each other to look out for this kid, that this student is trouble that this child struggles in reading or math? Being human beings, some teachers do.

But Catherine O’Connell, writing in At Home with Our Faith, writes about a teacher her son had who bucked the trend:

“She refused to read the evaluations of students before she began teaching them. She wouldn’t listen to stories of past disciplinary misadventures. She wanted to give each kid a clean slate in her class. Maybe a kid had a bad year, she said. Maybe this year they’d like to change their ways. If she came into the year prepared to do battle with Kevin the Troublemaker, that kid didn’t have a chance.”

This teacher mirrors the hope of today’s Gospel. While all too well aware of our failings, God always allows us to start over. In the vision of God, change is always possible. Jesus challenges us to be such agents of change, to give one another -and ourselves -space to grow, a hand to help up, a shoulder to lean on. In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the scribes and Pharisees, who prided themselves on the meticulous keeping of the Law, to move beyond the Law and become ministers of reconciliation and agents of forgiveness. Rather than stone this woman, Jesus calls them to help her up, to provide support and help to her and others like her to re-create their lives. Such a response begins with the humility to realize that we, too, stumble and fall and gratitude for those who help us up.

In today’s gospel the woman caught in adultery is set free by Jesus, set free from her past. She is given a chance at a new and fresh beginning. “Your sins are forgiven, go away and don’t sin anymore.” You are free, stay free.

There is a challenge there – the challenge of accepting forgiveness, the challenge of letting go of the past and having the courage to make a fresh start. That woman had been trapped by her reputation – in her own mind and in the mind of others she would always be the adulteress. But Jesus freed her from that, and in effect what he says is: now you are free, now you can live differently, choose a new life.

Jesus is inviting her and us to let go of fear, let go of whatever is choking or shrinking the life that is trying to grow within us. He is inviting us to step out of the darkness and into the light. He challenges her, the crowd -and us -to look beyond our disappointments in our mutual failures and lift one another up when we stumble; he asks us to look within our own hearts to confront the dark and sin that are part of every life and find within ourselves the compassion and love of God that leads to true and lasting joy, healing and peace.

The question for us today is – what are we dragging along with us, what is weighing us down, what do we need to let go of if we are to live as we can and as Jesus wants us to. What are we clinging onto that is doing us no good, only harm – regret, bitterness, resentment, anger, guilt. Perhaps Jesus is saying to us: today is a new day, don’t be stuck in yesterday, be the person you can be today.

Let us accept the hand he holds out to us and walk with him into a new life!