Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 19, 2024 - Thursday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 15:1-11 and Luke 7:36-50]"Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her hears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. 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.....But he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." [Luke]
This is an incredibly poignant scene! Imagine this woman coming into an all-male dining party and proceeding to wash Jesus' feet with her tears, drying them with her hair and then anointing them with oil! Women did not dine with men in the culture of 1st century Palestine (and still do not in some Middle Eastern Islamic cultures.) To make matters worse, she was considered a "sinner," and her actions scandalized the host who was a Pharisee. (It is interesting enough that a Pharisee invited Jesus to dine, let alone the scene that followed.) The power of the scene, however, is not in the cultural aspect but in the connection between faith, love and forgiveness! The woman believed that Jesus' would forgive her sins, so she showed great love (and courage) in her actions. She did not do it to obtain forgiveness but to show the love that forgiveness should create.
The connection often seems to be lost. The Sacrament of Reconciliation at times seems more like the sacrament of guilt relief and not a sacrament of love. Reconciliation is meant to restore love of neighbor and not just to obtain divine forgiveness for hatred or harm against neighbor or other moral lapse. The Pharisee was scandalized that Jesus would allow the woman to touch him and would probably have had the woman ushered out immediately. In another place in Luke's gospel, Pharisees and scribes complain, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!" [Luke 15:1-2] Would we make the same complaint? With whom do we identify in this scene: Jesus? Simon the Pharisee? or the woman? Forgiveness and love go together in the gospel and should be remembered in our sacramental Church. AMEN