Once upon a time there was a man who was caught stealing and was brought before the King, who immediately gave orders that he should be hanged. As he was being led to the gallows, he told the governor that he knew a wonderful secret, taught to him by his father. Using this secret, he could plant the seed of pomegranate and make it grow and bear fruit overnight. He said it would be a pity for this secret to die with him and he was willing to reveal it to the King. He was brought to the king and in the presence of the king, he dug a hole, and talking a pomegranate seed said: the secret is: ‘someone who has never taken anything that didn’t belong to him must plant the seed’. He turned to one of the King’s officials and he refused. He turned to the King’s treasurer who refused as well. Finally, the King was the only person who was left. Perhaps your majesty would like to do the honour and plant the seed. I’m ashamed to say but once I kept a watch that belonged to my father said the King. All of you are powerful and rich people, yet none of you can plant the seed. Yet I, who have stolen a little because I was starving, am about to be hanged. The king pardoned him. The King was prepared to listen, if not the story would have ended another way. Thanks to the compassion and understanding that Jesus showed the woman, whom the scribes and pharisees had caught in adultery, in the gospel today, she was able to put her sin behind her and make a new start. The fact that he didn’t condemn her, does not mean that he thought light of adultery. He treated her is such a way that it made her want to reform her life. He condemned the woman’s sin but refused to condemn her. He distinguished between the sin and the sinner. He condemned the sin but pardoned the sinner. It wasn’t a question of being liberal (anything goes). His final words to her are: ‘go and sin no more’. In our secular humanism today, so many people would laugh at you, if you told them that mortal sin and venial sin still exists in the world. Is there anyone here who could honestly say that they are without sin? Yet the sacrament of confession seems to be non-existent. Last year we had our Easter Penitential service and it was very poorly attended.  Do I realize that God sent His only Son down to die for my sins, and yet we don’t avail of his forgiveness?  Last week in the parable of the prodigal son, an important phrase was that he came to his senses. Perhaps we need to come to our senses and realize that we are sinners in need of the forgiving Christ.  Jesus shows us that there is grace and that we can avail of that grace of forgiveness.  Another lesson from this story is the warning against being too quick to take the high moral ground. How many times do we cast stones of judgment at others?