Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Luke C7, V36 - 8:3
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
13 Jun 2010
All three readings today talk about the great Christian mystery of forgiveness, which we are apt to take for granted until we make a big mistake ourselves and want forgiveness, or are called to forgive others in some serious matter.
Forgiveness was a reality in the Old Testament story of David, but the penance or punishment of continuing strife for David's family and descendants was fierce. In the New Testament Jesus' teaching of forgiveness is more developed and central, linked with the concepts of love (obviously) and perhaps less obviously with faith. But we need faith to believe God can and will forgive us.
The Gospel story of the prostitute greeting Jesus is prefaced by Jesus' teaching on love and forgiveness and by the beatitudes. Then follow four examples of love in action: a) the cure of centurion's son; b) the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain; c) the preaching of John the Baptist; and d) Jesus with the prostitute.
Simon the Pharisee was a serious man, who probably took himself even more seriously. Not a mocker or trickster, he invited Jesus to a meal not to set Jesus up and demolish him, but because he was interested, perhaps half believing. He respected Jesus sufficiently to call him "rabbi" or teacher.
At oriental banquets, guests left their sandals at the door and reclined on couches with their feet behind them. It sounds most uncomfortable, especially if you had a bad back! Normally doors were left open for visitors to wander in, beggars for food, the inquisitive, perhaps students to listen.
Although Mary Magdalene is mentioned almost immediately after this excerpt, this is not sufficient to identify her with the prostitute, the public sinner. We have no evidence that Jesus knew the visitor. She was simply someone who had heard him, or at least heard his message, and changed her ways. She decided to thank him with this magnificent public gesture by washing his feet with expensive ointment. We should contrast this with the aloof and formal welcome Jesus had received earlier from Simon, no foot bath, no kiss, no perfume, the polite "don't call me, I'll call you approach"; and the public scandal only deepened when the woman dried Our Lord's feet with her hair, apparently something no decent woman would then do in public.
Simon knew the woman's reputation and was scandalised by Jesus' reaction. Surely Jesus must have recognized this woman for what she was; why didn't he fob her off?
But Our Lord moved in a direction Simon never expected with the story of the two debtors and the comparison between the two welcomes. He concluded by telling this woman her sins were forgiven because of her faith and her love.
This is a beautiful incident, like some of Our Lord's parables, which tells us a thousand times more than a hundred pages of dry talk about forgiveness.
Many persons can forgive easily but most of us find it hard in extreme situations. Nature is much less forgiving. We remember the old saying: "God always forgives; men and women sometimes forgive, but nature never forgives". Early last week I spoke to some hundreds of young adults at Theology on Tap on "The Costs of Discipleship". Cut-price Christianity is hazardous and if we are regularly slow to pay the costs of discipleship, we are more likely to need God's forgiveness in some big way. King David is an example of this. Despite his achievements and the many blessings given to him, he had become vain and arrogant, a victim to his passions. At the other extreme the woman who anointed Jesus' feet was only at the beginning of her conversion story.
The need to repent, the call to conversion, are constants as we go through life, not just at the beginning of the story. We need humility as well as perseverance, even if we are closer to the end than the beginning. Everyone who stands should beware lest he fall!
God's grace and love are all different from the wages of sin; different even from the forgiveness Mahatma Gandhi required, as depicted in a film from many years ago. After the post-Independence riots in India between Hindus and Muslims as depicted in a film from many years ago, a Hindu, who had laid aside his chopper, told Gandhi "I am damned to Hell because I killed a young child, crushed his skull on the pavement". "There is a way out" Gandhi replied. "Take a young orphan and bring him up as your own. But make sure he is a Muslim and bring him up as a Muslim!"
This is a beautiful story, but the penance is terribly stiff. Would the killer's Hindu neighbours allow him to bring up a Muslim? Would the child be accepted into a Muslim congregation?
Christ, as Son of God, offers us another way out of hell. The Sacrament of reconciliation, or confession, through the priest is the usual way for us today. For many acts, a murder for example, only God can forgive because the victim is gone.
Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful gifts given to us by Christ and the Church. We should never take it for granted, as those brought up as Christians are tempted to do. As I tell the youngsters, even Hitler or Stalin could be forgiven if they repented. God will forgive us, even when we cannot forgive ourselves! We should thank God for this.
In name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
