Today’s Gospel presents us with the mercy of Jesus and the legalistic righteousness of Simon the Pharisee—a man unable to see the pain of a woman whom everyone, himself included, judged as a “loose woman.” The scene unfolds at the home of Simon the Pharisee; he had invited Jesus because he had heard Him spoken of as a great prophet, and because hosting prophets brought prestige and status to one’s own person. It was, therefore, a matter of prestige rather than an openness to something new or to change.
Observing the Law
The Pharisees were men of God who observed the Law, yet they had not yet grasped that salvation does not come from observing the Law—for the Law brings only an awareness of one’s own sins. Before God, no one can claim to be righteous; no one can attain salvation by their own efforts alone.
While they are seated with Jesus at the meal, a woman enters—someone known to everyone in the city as a sinner. Everyone in the city knows her: she is a notorious sinner—singled out, judged, and condemned. Yet, the desire for a new life leads her to perform acts of love that shatter the barriers of prejudice and silently express a total love for Jesus. She feels no shame in entering that house and—in the presence of everyone—kneeling at Jesus’s feet, washing them with her tears, drying them with her hair, and kissing them.
Love had taught her that Jesus’s love conquers every fear and forgives every sin. She had sought love in other places—in fact, she had been a “beggar for love”—but had found only exploitation at the hands of others. Now, things are different. Now, her hunger for love could be satisfied. She had found the One who is love!
Approach God
What message has this story for us today? It invites us to take heart and be of good courage to approach God, who – though three times holy and hates sin – loves sinners and does not cast them away. Let this woman be an example to us: there is no situation from which we cannot make a fresh start, and no sin that God cannot forgive. Let us never forget that “whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts!” He never condemns us. God hates the sin but loves the sinner. We must not compromise with sin, whereas sinners—that is, all of us—are like the sick who need to be healed. Let us, therefore, ask ourselves, with sincerity and humility, what our wounds, our ailments, and our frailties, our miseries are, for which we seek the care of the heavenly Physician. Often, it is precisely these things that teach us to show mercy to others and not to see them only through the prism of their faults.
