I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on tv, but I do know that one of the balances to be struck in healing people is finding the sweet spot between allowing illness to hurt people and overmedicating them to the point that the cure itself hurts them. I have a priest friend that goes nuclear every time he feels a cold coming on,
and in order to get ahead of it, he drinks an entire bottle of Nyquil and goes to sleep for ten hours. I do not recommend this. Similarly, when people with cancer undergo treatment, oftentimes the doctors are trying to set the most aggressive treatment possible to get rid of the cancer, even if the body itself is collateral damage.

Ancient peoples, particularly in the time of Jesus, had a much stronger sense of personal sin and the danger it poses than many of us do today. The pharisees are so bent on rooting out sin (and sinners) from their midst that they don’t care if people are hurt in the process. Today’s Gospel is a great example of that, as the woman caught in adultery finds herself facing death for an indiscretion. Never mind the fact that her partner is apparently getting away scot-free, or that the punishment is unduly severe; sin is bad, and must be destroyed.

Jesus, as the Divine Physician, resets our mentality and brings things back into order. He does not deny the reality of sin, nor does He destroy all those who were seeking to punish this woman. He simply resets our mentality to think about sin as a brokenness, a disorder that is to be healed. This is why we are called to punish sin within ourselves and be merciful to sinners that we encounter:
not because sin isn’t bad, but because it is something foreign to us and it hurts us.
To destroy a sinner because they sin is to overwhelm a sickness with a cure that is even more deadly than the original disease.
 
As we draw towards the end of Lent, think about how God is calling you to conversion and how He is calling you to show mercy to others. If we relentlessly search out and destroy sin within our own lives while we simultaneously demonstrate God’s love to those who are trapped in sin, we will get the most out of Lent and celebrate Easter with great joy and love.