An Exegetical Reflection on
the Gospel of the Eleventh Sunday of Year C, Luke 7:36-50, June 16, 2013
IN THE FAST-PACED movie of adventure and fantasy, shown in theaters two
years ago, entitled “Prince of Persia:
The Sands of Time,” set in an imagined kingdom of Persia in the fifth
century, one of the characters that caught the attention of the audience was
Dastan, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Dastan was an orphaned scamp who went about the market place. But the King of Persia, Sharaman in the
person of Ronald Pickup, caught sight of him; and shown by Dastan’s valor in
fighting those who pursued him, he adopted him as his son. Grateful to the King’s benevolence, he
distinguished himself as an able commander of the Persian Army. Accused of murdering the King, he never
turned against his step brothers who sought him; rather, he tried to prove his
innocence to them at his own great peril.
Indeed, he sacrificed so much in order to save them from the evil
machination of their uncle, Nizam, played by Ben Kingsley, who, salivating
after the royal throne, was the culprit of the plot to eliminate the king.
Dastan’s behavior
recalls how the sinful woman in today’s Gospel (Luke 7:36-50) conducted herself
before Jesus. How explain her
extravagant demeanor? There’s certainly
no doubt about it, what the woman did was an expression of hospitality and
great love—her kissing of Jesus’ feet, her bathing them with her tears, her
drying them with her hair, and her anointing them with perfume from an
alabaster flask. The problem lies in the
correct interpretation of v 47a, which is ambiguous. The new Vulgate renders it
thus: “Remissa sunt peccata eius multa,
quoniam delixet multum.” “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much” (RSV). “Her many sins have
been forgiven—for she loved much” (NIV).
By itself, the verse could mean that her multitude of sins was forgiven
on account of the love she had demonstrated to Jesus. But the preceding parable of two debtors, in
addition to the second segment of v 47 (“He who was been forgiven little loves
little”), excludes this interpretation.
This brief parable
allegorizes the divergent behaviors of Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman
toward Jesus. The Pharisee was quite
stingy with his hospitality, in contrast with that of the woman which was
lavish. While Simon never gave attention
to the details of hospitality, even though he was the host who invited Jesus to
dinner, the prostitute, who was uninvited, was hospitable to Jesus to the
highest degree. This only shows that
although Simon knew Jesus, he remained blind to him and his significance to his
life; he remained in his self-righteous attitude. In reality, he did not even recognize Jesus
as a prophet. On the other hand, the
loose woman certainly recognized Jesus as more than a prophet, for she accepted
his word of forgiveness. (Luke hints
that Jesus is more than just a human being, since the guests wondered why he
was able to forgive sins.) Having
received divine grace, she became a changed woman, and it was in the house of
Simon that she was able to give thanks and demonstrate her love on account of
the forgiveness she received. In effect,
the story assumes that she encountered Jesus and received forgiveness prior to
her meeting with him at the house of Simon.
Because she realized her need for forgiveness, and received that gift
from Jesus, it was natural that she would be generous in her response. On the other hand, if Simon violated the
rules of Palestinian hospitality, it was because the logion, “the one to whom
little was forgiven, loves little (v 47b),” applies to him.
The attitude of the
sinful woman is therefore somewhat similar to the attitude of Dastan in the
film. Just as the King’s benevolence
resulted in a warrior who remained faithful to the King’s family despite the
dangers that he encountered, the Lord’s forgiveness lavished on the woman
brought about a generous love for him, in spite of the fact that her action
would have left the guests in consternation.
St Paul is the best illustration of this episode in concrete life. As he himself declared in his letter to the
Corinthians, “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the
church of God, I do not even deserve the name.
But by God’s favor, I am what I am.
This favor of his to me has not proved fruitless. Indeed, I have worked harder than all the
others not only my own but through the favor of God” (1 Cor 15:9-10). Paul was conscious of his sinfulness, but he
recognized the grace of God’s forgiving love that came from Jesus. That is why he knew that if he was chosen as
an apostle, it was not because of any good thing he did, or any merit on his
part, but it was because of God’s loving and forgiving grace for him. This grace produced a humongous result—Paul
devoted himself to the preaching of the Gospel to the pagan world until the end
of his life, and became a living Word of Jesus’ life. This grace was the energy that propelled him
in his missionary labors.
The sinful woman,
therefore, is a model for us on what it means to receive grace from God despite
our unworthiness. Unlike the Pharisee
who paraded himself as righteous, she was never ashamed to accept herself and
to be known by others as a sinner. But
this recognition worked all the better for her, because she came to admit her
need to be forgiven, to encounter Jesus as the bringer of forgiveness and
salvation, and on account of that encounter, she became a new person in
Christ. This pericope is a good reminder
for some who want to parade as holy men and women, even though they know they
are not, and use their power to silence, demote, and punish those who they
surmise might turn out to be a threat to the cover-up of their corruption, and
invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the use of that power. They are the present-day Simons in our
midst. Holiness begins with the
recognition that we are all sinners and in need of forgiveness. That
recognition not only makes us free; it makes us human and enables us to really walk
in real love and gratitude to God.
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