11 Ordinary

June 17, 2007

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Sm 12:7-10, 13

Gal 2:16, 19-21

Lk 7:36-8:3

Today’s gospel is a study in similarity and contrast.  There are sinners, one is forgiven; one doesn’t see the need for forgiveness.

Why does Jesus associate with sinners?  Because in forgiving sinners, God is able to transform them into people who display great love.  Jesus understands this transformation, and it is at the heart of his mission.  It is not what the sinner is that Jesus sees, but what the sinner could be through God’s love.  Forgiveness leads to the fruit of action.

The woman who anoints Jesus in today’s gospel comes with a lot of baggage, not her own, but ours, trying to fill in the details that the gospel writer left out.  Some have called her Mary Magdalene—she wasn’t, from the scriptural evidence we simply do not know who this woman was.  And we are not told what her sins are, we are simply told that she was a sinner who was present at the Pharisee’s house.  That she stood behind Jesus weeping and when the time was right, bathed his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with ointment.

In Jesus’ time it was customary for the host to greet a guest with certain rituals.  As a mark of respect, the host placed his hand on the guest’s shoulder and gave him a kiss of peace.  Since roads were but dust tracks and shoes were merely soles held in place by straps across the foot, cool water was poured over the guest’s feet to cleanse and comfort them.  And finally, a drop of oil was placed on the guest’s head.

Another common misinterpretation of today’s gospel is that the woman “earned” her forgiveness by her outpouring of love for Jesus.  On first reading there’s a temptation to reduce this gospel passage to a moralizing tale which goes something like this: if you show a lot of love and do something for Jesus, you will earn forgiveness.  But that’s not what the story says.  The parable Jesus tells Simon makes this clear; a person who had been forgiven a great debt will, as a consequence, show great love to the one who has forgiven the debt.  Which is what the woman has done.  She has already been forgiven and her acts are an expression that she realized what she had received and is grateful.

The woman shows she accepts Jesus as God’s wisdom; Simon, by his lack of response, shows he doesn’t.  The account shows that Simon doubted that Jesus was from God.  But the woman doesn’t, for her actions reveal that she knows she has been forgiven and that she believes Jesus is God’s instrument of forgiveness.  Apparently Simon doesn’t see himself as a sinner, nor does he acknowledge that were he a sinner and had faith in Jesus, he too would be forgiven.  There were two sinners before Jesus that day: the woman who had experienced forgiveness and was expressing it and Simon, who wouldn’t admit his need for forgiveness, nor recognize Jesus as the way to be forgiven.

The significant difference between the woman and Simon is not that she had been a worse sinner than him––it is possible that she had not been––but that she has realized more truly and deeply the reality of her sin.

Our Gospel and first reading this weekend remind us of something very important.  God is the one who forgives sins.  We are the ones who sin.  The issue is not whether or not we will sin.  We will and we do.  The issue is whether we’ll open ourselves to the justice and mercy of God.  David in our first reading does.  The woman does.  Simon however, resists.  As Simon sits in judgment, the woman kneels in repentance.  The Gospel ends with Simon being rebuked and the woman being forgiven.

Many times we are, at least I know I am, much more like Simon than the woman.  It’s easy for us to detect the flaws in those around us.  The more we look for those the easier it is for us to ignore our own.

Sometimes we might need a “prophet” to help us determine what in our lives needs healing and forgiving.  One way we can come to appreciate our debt is to follow the advice Nathan gave to David—to recall the good that God had done for him.  David had been anointed King, rescued from Saul, given possessions and family, and even more.  In forgetting all this good, he lusted after what he did not have and sinned deeply.  It could be helpful for us to sit down and make a list of the good God has done for us.  That could help us appreciate the fact that what we’ve been given is significant, much more than the things we would still “like” to have.