Today's readings: 2 Samuel 12, 7-10.13; Galatians 2, 16.19-21; Luke 7, 38 - 8, 3.
We live in a culture which definitely has problems defining what really is sinful or not. For different reasons, we tend to be overly optimistic that we can possibly save ourselves.
Actually, it is not sin in itself that blocks our way to God. As is amply shown in today's readings, sin can open up a window to God's love and infinite mercy. King David's meeting with the prophet Nathan, and Luke's account of the meeting of a notorious woman at the Pharisee's house confirm this.
What changes King David's ways is his acknowledgment: "I have sinned against the Lord". Before we acknowledge our sin and before we spell it out, it remains very difficult for us to change our ways and really grow up. Unfortunately, many times we remain prisoners of our past and of our own ways of doing things.
In The Inner Voice of Love, Henri Nouwen writes, "The years that lie behind you, with all their struggles and pains, will in time be remembered only as the way that led to your new life." But this does not happen automatically. We have to work at it.
This is also the deep meaning of today's gospel reading. The echo of Jesus' words to the woman with a bad reputation should leave an indelible mark on our preaching and pastoral strategies. "Her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love."
The two conditions of true forgiveness seem to be the acknowledgment of our sin, and love. If we fail to go through these preliminaries, it would be difficult to let ourselves be transformed by God's love. We remain prisoners of our own selves, struggling but going round in circles, always ending up where we started.
As St Paul writes to the Galatians in the second reading, "what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the law, but faith in Jesus Christ".
Salvation never comes from ourselves; it always comes from outside. In today's gospel story, the woman anointing Jesus' feet with ointment in an expression of adoration, provokes puzzlement, if not scandal. The extravagance of her intimacy with Jesus is very much in contrast with the socially aware Pharisee who invited him, judging her by moral standards but unable himself to connect with Jesus.
Reading this text, the focus is not on the host, Simon the Pharisee, nor on Jesus, the invited guest, or the others at table, but on the woman. It is not Jesus who forgives her sins. It is her love, her gesture of anointing, that won her true forgiveness.
On the other hand, for Simon the Pharisee, for whom moral law has all answers and who is quite clear-cut where good and bad are concerned, Jesus who was next to him at table remains distant. It is very difficult for Simon and people like him to digest Paul's words in his letter to the Galatians: "Faith in Christ, rather than fidelity to the law, is what justifies us".
Unfortunately, in our preaching, we continue to find this too risky to deal with in depth. We still consider people to be too immature to grow up. So the primacy of love over law and God's benevolence towards the sinner are concepts to be avoided because they may sound like pure legitimation of moral confusion.
But it is just not the case. If we persist in doing that, it would amount to devoiding the Gospel of its content of the Good News of Jesus.
Timothy Radcliffe writes: "Seeking the good is not primarily about rules and commandments. It is not about what you are obliged or forbidden to do. Being good is primarily about making a journey towards God and happiness." It is this journey which brought the woman of ill repute to the Pharisee's house to find forgiveness and happiness.