Everybody deserves a second chance.  One personal favorite theological word is vindication.  People are prone to fall. As the expression says, "We all make mistakes." And yet when someone encounters Christ a second chance can be given.   God can make the wasteland a river and, in the desert, God finds a way.  With a little bit of openness to change, the floodgates of the grace of God can flow to a given life and can change it in a powerful way.  God gives the person a chance to redeem unlike many human beings who like the Pharisees are ready to throw the stone.   It is true that it is difficult to let go of things especially when one is the one aggrieved.  But we all deserve a second chance. All have been there, in a moment when there was a lapse of judgment, when a mistake was made.  But if truly repentant God will forgive through the sacrament of reconciliation.   Notice during Lent this sacrament is being referenced in the readings.  Perhaps to get all who need it to go to Confession before Easter as the church commandment dictates.  Jesus is waiting there in the form of a priest. And like Jesus the priest is not there to condemn, to cast the first stone.  The priest like Jesus is there to patiently forgive the sins and invite the person to go and sin no more.  It is very interesting that while the Pharisees were speaking Jesus writes in the ground.  Many interpretations have been given about this gesture. Jesus first bends and keeps bent down until all have left. Jesus is patient and awaits the opportune time to forgive.  Notice they all left one by one, and Jesus was still bent. Jesus has so much patience with the sinner and waits for the person in the confessional. Some speculate about what Jesus was writing on the ground.  Some even go as far to say that what he wrote on the ground was the word "love."  Another interpretation is that Jesus was just thinking what to say and was buying time just to let the Pharisees reveal who they truly were.  However, a preferred interpretation really focuses on the action of Jesus by stooping down and writing slowly in the ground.  These actions can be interpreted in conjunction with what is proposed here about confession.  Jesus put his finger on the ground. A powerful image of connecting Jesus with all humanity. He became incarnate to be fully human and fully grounded in the human experience. By touching the ground with his finger, he is saying that he understands weaknesses in humanity. He is a high priest who all can relate because he became like us in all things except sin.  Also, by this gesture, Jesus is acknowledging that "we are dust and to dust we shall return."  And he is ready to forgive all frail human beings repentant of their sins because he is grounded in their existence.  Jesus can sympathize with weaknesses and give His pardon is in confession.  The actions Jesus did for the woman (caught in adultery) are the actions Jesus wants to do at the confessional.  However, so are still resistant to the love of God in this setting.  Some still are holding on to their sins.  Jesus invites to come to his mercy, to know and feel forgiven by the absolution. Jesus is ready to give a second chance at the confessional and at the same time give a challenge, "Go, and sin no more."