Evenings With Bede come from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services in my parish. It is a simple format: first is the Scripture passage, second is the passage from S. Bede, and third is my short homily. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below.
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A Lesson from the Gospel according to S. John 8.1
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
A Lesson from a Homily by the Venerable S. Bede, English monk and scholar who fell asleep in the Lord in the year 735 (Homily 1.25)
The fact the both before and after Jesus gave His opinion He bent and wrote on the ground admonishes us that both before we rebuke a sinning neighbor and after we have rendered to him the ministry of due correction, we should subject ourselves to a suitably humble examination, lest perhaps we be entangled in the same things that we censure in our neighbors, or in any other sort of misdeeds. For it often comes about, for example, that people who publicly judge a murderer to be a sinner may not perceive the worse evil of the hatred with which they themselves despoil someone in secret; people who bring an accusation against a fornicator may ignore the plague of the pride with which they congratulate themselves for their own chastity; people who condemn a drunkard may not see the venom of envy with which they themselves are eaten away. In dangers of this sort, what saving remedy is left for us except that, when we look at some other sinner, we immediately bend down – that is, we humbly observe how we would be cast down by our frail condition if divine benevolence did not keep us from falling? Let us write with a finger on the ground – that is, let us meticulously ponder with discrimination whether we can say with blessed Job, “My heart shall not condemn me as long as I live,” and let us painstakingly remember that if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and He knows all things.
Evenings with Bede: Episode 2