"The idea that everyone is strong enough to bear immediate contact with God is false, and conceivable only by an age that has forgotten what it means to stand in the direct ray of divine power, that substitutes sentimental religious ‘experience’ for the overwhelming reality of God’s presence. To claim that everyone could and should be exposed to that reality is sacrilegious."
— Romano Guardini, The Lord
(Only in heaven can we bear to see that glory and live; here and now, we are given as much Light as we can bear.)
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1 TM 4:12-16; PS 111:7-8, 9, 10
LK 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."
Reflection on the Scriptures |
When confronted by his host-critic, the Pharisee Simon, Jesus asks him about someone who forgave two persons’ debts, one a relatively smaller amount and the other a huge stash of money. Who would have been more grateful for the forgiving? “The one I suppose whose larger debt was forgiven” the Pharisee responds correctly.
Jesus answers by pointing out what happened when he arrived for the dinner. The host did not receive Jesus with water to wash his weary feet nor the required kiss of welcome. But “She has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair and has not ceased kissing my feet.” You did not offer oil for a blessing, but she “anointed my feet with
ointment.”
Her many sins have been forgiven. Simon’s social gaffs also are forgiven. Simon has little to be forgiven and his little sins seem to imply that he loves little (“the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little”). We, like the lavishly loving woman in the tale, all have many sins to be forgiven.
- Tom Shanahan, S.J.
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 63
“As verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unkind”—a disease or monstrous thing against nature. “He shall heal us full fair.”
And I understood none higher stature in this life than Childhood, in feebleness and failing of might and of wit, unto the time that our Gracious Mother hath brought us up to our Father’s Bliss. And then shall it verily be known to us His meaning in those sweet words where He saith: All shall be well: and thou shalt see, thyself, that all manner of things shall be well. And then shall the Bliss of our Mother, in
Christ, be new to begin in the Joys of our God: which new beginning shall last without end, new beginning.
Thus I understood that all His blessed children which be come out of Him by Nature shall be brought again into Him by Grace.
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