Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you the sensation
which tells you this is something you have always known.
- The Orange Catholic Bible Commentaries -
(Do your religious beliefs affirm the goodness of creation, including yourself? Does is help you to live life more fully? Is your God a good God? Check yourself to see. Such life-affirming convictions are of the mind of Christ.)
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1 COR 15:1-11; PS 118:1B-2, 16AB-17, 28
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."
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
Jesus says there is freedom in forgiveness and courage in acknowledging sinfulness.
God delights in my presence on this earth. I am a child of God.
I know that I am called to be a companion of Jesus and I know that Jesus calls you also. We are here for a specific purpose. We are here to serve and love our families, our neighbors, our communities. Jesus message is to love, to forgive and to provide for each other. It’s simple, its basic and it’s the truth.
In this current time of suffering, tribulation, and an abundance of sin, let us ask our God for forgiveness, to love one another and to offer our hand in taking evil and converting it to a good. Forgiveness can change a life. Forgiveness will make a transformational change in a life. Let's take this opportunity to forgive someone close to us. Let’s recognize that if each of us today forgives one person, the world can be transformed. How easy is that?
- by Cindy Costanzo
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 80
"Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and doeth all." Love suffereth never to be without Pity"
BY three things man standeth in this life; by which three God is worshipped, and we be speeded, kept and saved.
We know in our Faith that God alone took our nature, and none but He; and furthermore that Christ alone did all the works that belong to our salvation, and none but He; and right so He alone doeth now the last end: that is to say, He dwelleth here with us, and ruleth us and governeth us in this living, and bringeth us to His bliss. And this shall He do as long as any soul is in earth that shall come to heaven,--and so far forth that if
there were no such soul but one, He should be withal alone till He had brought him up to His bliss. I believe and understand the ministration of angels, as clerks tell us: but it was not shewed me. For Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and doeth all. And not only all that we need, but also He doeth all that is worshipful, to our joy in heaven.
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