Almost a Humorous Mystery

In honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. (John 8:3-8)

Suddenly a single stone came flying from the crowd. Jesus turned. "Mother, I was trying to make a point!" (apocryphal)

This story, while not found in most manuscripts of John and eventually excluded from the canon, shows that the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (not to be confused with the Virgin Birth) was already present in some form in the early Church. Apart from the admittedly problematic elements associated with Mary throwing stones, from which it is easy to see why it was condemned as apocryphal, the story itself is clearly an affirmation of Mary's immaculate purity and freedom from sin. Of course, a crucial strike against the story was the observation of some theologians that her sinlessness cannot be affirmed through a sinful action (throwing the stone), although others have argued that the action was not sinful, being prescribed by the Law and done in accordance with the literal words of Our Lord. (The Catholic Encyclopedia article inexplicably makes no mention of this debate).