Thursday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 16, 2021

Luke 7:36-50

A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “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 tears 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.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

“A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.”  This verse brings to mind the story of Daniel in the lion’s den, except that Jesus willingly enters the “den”, showing that there is no place he will not go to offer salvation, even into the homes of those who do not really want he has to give them.  

“Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.”  Pope St. Gregory the Great identified the woman in this account as Mary Magdalene, thinking that this anointing of Jesus by a woman was the same as that performed by a woman named Mary, as recounted in John 12, 1-8, whom Gregory thought to be Mary Magdalene.  Luke does not name the woman about whom he is writing here, and the circumstances and details of this anointing are rather different from those belonging to the anointing St. John describes.  So, while the woman in Luke might have been Mary Magdalene, there is no evidence in the Gospels to support this.  All we know about this woman’s background is that the Pharisee into whose house she came considered her “a sinner”, which might mean a number of things.  The Greek text does not help us here, as the word in question simply translates as “sinner” in a general sense.  The tradition holds that she was a prostitute, and that could be.  Or she might have been a tax collector’s wife, or the Jewish wife of a Gentile.  In these cases she would have been considered an outcast, shunned by Jews abiding by their Law. 

“Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.”  The woman seems to hurry in before anyone could stop her.  Just as there was no place the Lord would not go to fetch back a lost sheep, so the sinner who comes to his senses sweeps past temptations and the opinions of others in order to go to the Lord, not wasting any time and not putting off repentance.  The woman does not confess with her mouth but with her tears, and anoints the feet of the Lord with the perfume which she may have used in her previous life of sin.  She completely abases herself in the presence of the Lord and holds nothing back.  She burns the bridge to her old life as she pours out the last drop of the perfume on his feet.  She had heard the Lord preach about the Kingdom and his words stung her conscience, but also awakened her to the love of Almighty God for her.  She knew this through Jesus, and, deep in her heart, she knew that he was her Savior.

“When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.’ ”  This verse shows the distorted ideas the Pharisees took from the Scriptures, for nowhere do they describe a prophet as having the ability to read minds.  On the other hand, God knows our thoughts, and so Jesus proposes a parable to his host in order to teach him what he needs to learn.  “Simon, I have something to say to you.”  It is of note that St. Luke gives us the Pharisee’s name.  Since this detail is not necessary for the point Jesus makes with his parable, we might wonder why Luke thought it important enough to include it.  Did he, perhaps, meet Simon during the course of his missionary travels?  Was Simon the Pharisee now a believer who told how this event lead to his own conversion?

“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?”  A workingman could not pay these rather extravagant debts, and the creditor was within his rights to put these men in prison until their families raised the money to pay them off, but the creditor simply lets them go.  The question the Lord asks seems a strange one.  Simon the Pharisee must have answered warily: “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”  It is quiet in the dining hall and all listen attentively to the Lord.  The woman herself remains at his feet, continuing to weep and to wipe his feet with her hair.  After Jesus declared to Simon that he had answered his question correctly, he went on: “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 tears 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.”  Luke has withheld the shocking information of the Pharisee’s disgraceful lack of hospitality until now.  The Pharisee had, in fact, treated Jesus as a servant by neglecting him in this way.  This amounted to a very serious social breach, particularly as the other guests would have been accorded these services.  Even as the Lord was invited to this house, he was disrespected.  We might think of this today as an unworthy reception of Holy Communion: receiving the Body of the Lord while mortal sin reigns in our hearts and has not been dethroned yet by the Sacrament of Penance.  The woman’s conduct, which shocked Simon, was welcomed by the Lord and held up as exemplary, and, indeed, proper on her part.  Whatever life this woman had led before coming to Jesus, the real sinner in the room was Simon.

“Her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  This is a difficult passage to translate.  The sense is that sometime before, this woman had suddenly realized the love God had for her, even despite the many sins by which she had offended him.  The experience of his love caused love for God to overflow from her heart.  As greatly as she had sinned before, she loved now.  “The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  That is, the one who refuses to acknowledge his sinfulness and convinces himself that he has little that needs to be forgiven.  He “loves little” because he does not truly repent and open himself to the experience of the love of God, who loves him despite his sins.  If we open the door to Jesus, he will come in; but if we do not treat him with love and respect when he does come, we might as well have eaten alone.  We remain unmoved, unchanged.

“He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ ”  He forgives her sins, and he assures her that her sins are forgiven.  The others in the room gasped audibly at his words.  The woman ceased her weeping and looked up into the Lord’s face.  She did not speak, but only looked with awe into the eyes of Love.  “The others at table said to themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ ”  This is like the question the Apostles asked themselves when the Lord saved them from the storm on the sea: “And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?’ ” (Mark 4, 41).

But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”  The Lord did not address the others in the room, or even turn away from the woman to look at them.  He kept his eyes fixed on her.  He tells her that her faith has saved her.  She does not know what that means; it is for the others to hear.  But she does understand, “Go in peace.”  It had been long since she felt any peace, but now the weight of her sins was lifted off of her, the darkness was dispelled by the Light of God’s love, now flowing into her, uninhibited by sin.  She picked herself up slowly as though learning to stand for the first time, and then backed away, her eyes locked on his.  And then she went out the door.  We do not know what happened to this woman afterwards.  In the lives of the saints, those who had lived indulgent lives like Mary of Egypt or the man who would become known in religion as John of God lived truly penitentially the rest of their lives, often in dedicated service to the sick and the poor.  This woman may have joined the others among the Lord’s women followers.

We cannot now exactly duplicate the woman’s actions, but let us gaze solemnly at the crucifix or at the Host in adoration and see him waiting for us to come to him as she did, with our hearts wide open for him.