Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 20, 2012 - Thursday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 15:1-11 and Luke 7:36-50]So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.
The scene from the Gospel of Luke in today's gospel scripture is one of the most powerful in any of the four gospels. Since there are similar scenes in Mark and John, scripture scholars debate how this scene was put together, but that need not detain us here. Our imaginations and consciences are challenged. One commentator makes the very good suggestion that we read it through and then come back and read it in slow motion!
The woman is an intruder at the party. We do not know what makes her a sinner. She could have been involved with any of the trades or activities that Pharisees considered unclean. The host of the party is a Pharisee who apparently showed little of the ordinary and customary hospitality. In other words, he shows very little gratitude for Jesus' presence. He is contrasted with the woman who seems to have experienced God's mercy in some profound way before she comes to the party uninvited! Her gesture in anointing Jesus with her tears and ointment is an act of gratitude and love. Simon the Pharisee showed little of either.
There are those who try to build a fence around God's love and mercy and exclude those whom they consider "unworthy" or "unclean." Jesus comes to both the penitent woman AND Simon the Pharisee. Simon is scandalized both by the woman's behavior and by Jesus' permitting her to touch him! How can such a prophet and holy man do this? Jesus' response is the parable of the debtors. If we think about it, we can see echoes of the scene in Luke 18 of the pharisee and tax collector, or Matthew 18 (the unforgiving servant).
The challenge to all of us should be to examine our own lives for evidence of God's mercy and our response. When we receive forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, what is our reaction. Is it simply one of relief? Is there anything of love or gratitude? In other ways, how have we responded to God's love and mercy in our lives? The sheer courage of the woman arriving uninvited, weeping and anointing and then drying Jesus' feet with her hair is more than dramatic. It is a profound and public testimony. Dare we stand "in judgment" of her like Simon? Where are our own tears of love and gratitude? AMEN