Fr. Piero Lazzarini sx
ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
St Luke's gospel relates the story of the sinful woman, who, at lunch in a Pharisee's house, without being invited, approaches Jesus with a flask of ointment and standing behind him, weeping, begins to wet his feet with her tears, then wiping them with her hair, kisses them and anoints them with ointment.
The meditation on this beautiful story leads us to a revelation: the admission of our sins, of our misery, is the door that opens to the caress of Jesus: "Go in peace". Which means: the PRIVILEGED PLACE for the encounter with Jesus is OUR SINS! "But this is a heresy!" many people are surely ready to cry.
St Paul himself is not far from this way of thinking (the message of the story). He says that he only wants to boast about two things: his sins and the power of the Risen Christ that saves him. (2 Cor.12,9).
In the story, Simon, Jesus' host, is horrified by the behaviour of the sinner woman and scandalised by Jesus' condescendence towards her: "If he were a prophet..." Simon was surely an educated man, not a bad man, but he was blind, insensitive, far from reality. Jesus has to prove to him that the woman he despised had in fact shown more attention and respect and real better manners than he, but he was unable to see that.
Simon belonged to a class of people - many, in those days, and surely many even today - who on all occasions were ready to sit as judges to decry and condemn. They were not "bad", but they truly believed that they were not sinners. To them the "sinners" were the "others": tax-collectors, prostitutes... Yet Jesus one day addressed them scorching words: "Alas for you, Pharisees, hypocrites, fools, blind guides..." blind to reality, to the truth of "your" sins...
How could they understand that salvation enters the heart ONLY when WE OPEN THE HEART IN THE TRUTH OF OUR SINS? That's why Jesus added to his scolding: "Prostitutes and tax-collectors (converted) will go before you into the kingdom."
We shall not have the opportunity to do what the sinful woman did, but we all have the opportunity to weep, to open ourselves and say: "LORD, SAVE ME!" We all have the opportunity to encounter the Lord. (Cf. Ev. Gaudium n.1.3).
(This is the gist of a homily of Pope Francis, in St. Martha's chapel, in Sept. 2014)
ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
St Luke's gospel relates the story of the sinful woman, who, at lunch in a Pharisee's house, without being invited, approaches Jesus with a flask of ointment and standing behind him, weeping, begins to wet his feet with her tears, then wiping them with her hair, kisses them and anoints them with ointment.
The meditation on this beautiful story leads us to a revelation: the admission of our sins, of our misery, is the door that opens to the caress of Jesus: "Go in peace". Which means: the PRIVILEGED PLACE for the encounter with Jesus is OUR SINS! "But this is a heresy!" many people are surely ready to cry.
St Paul himself is not far from this way of thinking (the message of the story). He says that he only wants to boast about two things: his sins and the power of the Risen Christ that saves him. (2 Cor.12,9).
In the story, Simon, Jesus' host, is horrified by the behaviour of the sinner woman and scandalised by Jesus' condescendence towards her: "If he were a prophet..." Simon was surely an educated man, not a bad man, but he was blind, insensitive, far from reality. Jesus has to prove to him that the woman he despised had in fact shown more attention and respect and real better manners than he, but he was unable to see that.
Simon belonged to a class of people - many, in those days, and surely many even today - who on all occasions were ready to sit as judges to decry and condemn. They were not "bad", but they truly believed that they were not sinners. To them the "sinners" were the "others": tax-collectors, prostitutes... Yet Jesus one day addressed them scorching words: "Alas for you, Pharisees, hypocrites, fools, blind guides..." blind to reality, to the truth of "your" sins...
How could they understand that salvation enters the heart ONLY when WE OPEN THE HEART IN THE TRUTH OF OUR SINS? That's why Jesus added to his scolding: "Prostitutes and tax-collectors (converted) will go before you into the kingdom."
We shall not have the opportunity to do what the sinful woman did, but we all have the opportunity to weep, to open ourselves and say: "LORD, SAVE ME!" We all have the opportunity to encounter the Lord. (Cf. Ev. Gaudium n.1.3).
(This is the gist of a homily of Pope Francis, in St. Martha's chapel, in Sept. 2014)