11th
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
“Her many sins must have been forgiven her,
or she would not have shown such great love.”
We saw last Sunday how the Lord was moved with compassion. By feeling like us, he proves himself near to us. Indeed, as one like us, our God cannot just stand before the sorrow of man. He is always there as a perpetual recourse. But not only that. God’s compassion transcends even beyond human feelings. He is really a God who gives back not only physical life to the dead but spiritual life to a repentant sinner. But as Jesus manifests this divine act of forgiving sins, we see the vivid interplay of the three leading characters in the gospel: Simon the Pharisee, the weeping sinner and the Forgiving Jesus. On them rotates the message of today’s gospel. Let us meditate on it.
1. “One
of the Pharisees invited him to meal.” The gospel begins with this
statement. At the outset, we want to appreciate the hospitality of this man.
Surely, he was just one of the very few Pharisees who had the guts of inviting
the Lord. As the gospel seems to suggest, he did it with honest intentions.
Perhaps, he simply wanted to establish familiarity with Jesus. It just so
happened that on that same occasion, a woman came in and the attention became
focused at her. But there was enough reason why. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is that is
touching him and what a bad name she has.”
Simon’s thought does not really destroy his inner disposition to be honest. In fact, it even enforces his role as a Pharisee. Expected to be upright, he must have just tried to keep his moral standards even as secretly as his own heart. Besides, if we were the ones at Simon’s place, we would be thinking the same t. so, Simon was just that normal as to think that way. But was that enough?
2. “They were unable to pay, so he pardoned them both. Which of them will love him more?’ ‘The one who was pardoned more, I suppose’ answered Simon. Jesus said, ‘You are right,’” Jesus was that kind enough as not to embarrass the Pharisee. Jesus acknowledges friendliness and respects his honesty. But he lets Simon discover he really stands. And with Simon realizing it, Jesus does not hesitate to teach how discriminating his thought by itself – regardless of how normal or well-intended – sets a barrier between bad and good, sin and grace. The parable Jesus gives makes Simon a debtor any how. In other words, in the standards of Jesus, Simon stands as an average sinner, and being a sinner he ought to give a better attitude to a fellow sinner.
This right
attitude is what Jesus himself sets: forgiveness. “Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” This is the
hardest lesson the Pharisees are once again confronted with. Forgiving sins is
exclusively the business of God. It is reserved to no other but him alone. No
man has the right to take it to himself. Surely, Jesus’ statement annoyed them
once more. But if this was most piercing to the Pharisees’ ears, this was also
the sweetest thing the sinful woman could ever hear. Perhaps, she might have
already listened to the parables of Jesus about the lost sheep, the lost coin
and the assurance of heaven’s joy over one repentant sinner (cf Lk 15:6-9). Her
heart must have been toughed by Jesus’ consoling words that he came not for the
righteous but for the sinners (cf Mt
3. The forgiveness Jesus gives her so unreservedly becomes a turning point in her life. There is no doubt about it. If the one pardoned for less offense also shows only less love, she who has been pardoned for her graver sins shows greater love. This is the point of Jesus’ parable and this is what practically happens. The woman learns to love so greatly because of the amazing grace of forgiveness she receives undeservedly.
However, verse 47 seems to pose some difficulty. It seems to suggest that the woman’s great love is the cause for hr sins to be forgiven. At any rate, this must not cause us to quarrel about nor hinder us to explore other angles for spiritual reflection. Of course, we begin with a ore theologically sound proposition that God’s grace of forgiveness comes first and it is unmerited. The whole mystery of the incarnation is all about it. His total kenosis on the cross is nothing else but God’s manifestation of love beyond all telling. Thus, the forgiveness that overflows form it is also beyond all merits. But whereas God’s offer of grace and pardon is perpetual and constant, he also demands man’s disposition to receive it. After all, was it not also Jesus who taught us to ask pardon from the Father, and said too that the heavenly Father would forgive us just the way how we forgive others (cf Luke 11:13)? Is not this forgiving others an implicit command to love so that we may win his favor of forgiveness?
The overwhelming lesson we got from last Sunday’s gospel reminds us that the God we have is a God of compassion. Jesus’ deepest being was moved with compassion before a pitiful situation. It is in this light that we want to understand the woman’s great love which must have also moved the compassionate Jesus to forgive her many sins.
Today’s first reading reminds us of David’s greatest sin. God’s justice was right at David’s door. But David’s humble acceptance of his sin and his sincere repentance over it spared him from heaven’s wrath. At a closer look, David seems to personify both Simon the Pharisee and the weeping Prostitute in the gospel. At first, he rose in anger as his honest reaction to Nathan’s oracle. But once he realized it was he whom the prophet was referring to, his repentance became unparallel. Psalm 51 has been a traditional evidence of his deep-seated sorrow and regret. But was that not also an act of great love that moved the compassionate God for pardon?
In
another par of history, we recall how St. Ambrose used to console St. Monica
that her tears alone were strong enough to move the heavens as to hear her
prayers. And we know how the grace of forgiveness and conversion would knock at
the door of