Today’s readings: 2 Samuel 12, 7-10.13; Galatians 2, 16.19-21; Luke 7, 36 - 8, 3.
In his exhortation on The Joy of Love, one of Pope Francis’ strongest and most significant affirmations is: “It is reductive simply to consider whether or not an individual’s actions correspond to a general rule or law, because that is not enough to discern and ensure full fidelity to God in the concrete life of a human being” (304). From this, in a new logic of pastoral mercy, the Pope infers that “it is possible that in an objective situation of sin, a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end” (305).
This has always been a most controversial issue in the history of Christianity from the very beginning. St Paul, in today’s second reading from Galatians, touches on this when he writes that “what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the law, but faith in Jesus Christ”.
What makes a man righteous? ‘Righteous’ is normally translated as ‘morally correct’, and in Christian living the yardstick for moral correctness was always obedience to the law, ignoring circumstances and situations that may vary from person to person or the different paths people may follow in their autonomy.
In the 16th century, Martin Luther had battled with this concept of our being sinners and righteous people at one and the same time. The issue he addressed was whether people have to be perfectly righteous before God can accept them. He answers negatively: Sinners are accepted on account of Christ’s righteousness. Sin, at the end of the day, points to the continued need to entrust one’s person to the gentle care of God.
All this way of arguing finds a marvellous consolidation today in the reading about David and in St Luke’s account of what happened at Simon’s house. David, anointed king over Israel, acknowledges his sin and finds mercy in the eyes of God. The woman in Luke’s account, perceived and publicly judged as distant from the Lord, was nearest to him; by contrast the Pharisee who hosted the meal remained not the least touched by his guest Jesus.
At a time when people view institutionalised religion with suspicion and value their autonomy and freedom of choice also as believers, it is important that we give weight to personal growth and discernment. The choices we make in our understanding and enhancing people’s lives and inner paths can have a far-reaching effect on the pastoral counsel we give them and to ourselves.
In a heavily secularised culture when people are very alienated from the Church, we cannot afford to persist in presenting the Christian message in condemnatory terms. We seem to be again living in times that closely resemble those when, in the early centuries of Christianity, the Church Fathers of the east and west were arguing on the best attitudes to adopt, with the enlightenment they themselves found in Greek philosophy. Even among the early Fathers of the Church we find both the negative and the positive attitudes in the way they grasped what at the end of the day makes the wise man.
For Clement of Alexandria, for example, passions were diseases, and a good person has no passions. Gregory of Nyssa, basically hostile in his estimate of passions, allows for a more positive use of them, aiming more at their maintenance in proper balance and harmony rather than at their suppression. Others go further and, rather than being influenced by the negative stoical approach, see the passions as part of our original nature as created by God.
There is a very important message for the contemporary Church that comes out both from today’s readings and from the very particular moment in time we are living. Internally the Church is risking and suffering. There is internal strife going on, there are different schools of thought competing, but what is at stake is how the different inner paths towards the experience of God can be rightly discerned and facilitated. Luke speaks of “an alabaster jar of ointment” that the woman carried with her to anoint Jesus in Simon’s house. That jar stands for the ointment we are all called to bring wherever healing is needed. Controversies apart, it is love that brings forgiveness and healing.