At the House of Simon the Pharisee

A woman anoints Jesus’ feet

Jesus upends Simon’s expectations

of what sin is

of who is a sinner

and of how God ∴ Jesus ∴ we ought to treat a person, any person

And Jesus tweaks Simon

over how he treated Jesus

vs how the woman treated him.

Further, Jesus

Attributes the woman’s acts of love

and Simon’s lack of common courtesy

to opposite sides of the same reason:

The woman loves as she has been forgiven;

Simon is left to his own conclusions.

Simon

Probably believed himself sinless.

A Pharisee, he would have scrupulously kept ritually pure.

And so probably believed himself sinless ∴ with no need for forgiveness.

Jesus

Strongly suggests (but doesn’t say)

that Simon lacks love/empathy/understanding

because he hasn’t experienced forgiveness;

indeed, he thinks he has no need of it.

Like Jesus, I’m going to leave you to you own conclusions.

Unlike Jesus to Simon, I’m not making any inference about where you stand (with regard to forgiveness).

Cornelius and Cyprian

Cornelius Bp of Rome, Martyr; Cyprian Bp of Carthage, Martyr

They probably never met in person, but they stood together to defend the Church as an instrument of mercy and forgiveness against those rigorists who would forever exclude from the sacraments penitents who had denied Christ in the face of torture.

For that reason, their feasts are celebrated on the same day since very early times.

Cyprian, Epistle to Cornelius (Ep. 51.1)

For it was not right, neither did the love of the Father nor divine mercy allow, that the Church should be closed to those that knock, or the help of the hope of salvation be denied to those who mourn and entreat, so that when they pass from this world, they should be dismissed to their Lord without communion and peace;