Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Saint Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
There are plenty of times when I read the scriptures for the day and I am confounded by them. Often, they just seem to me to be from another world. And, of course, they are. And whenever I have that experience, I am humbled. As I should be. The Bible is an incredibly complex collection of texts. No doubt, that is a big part of the reason why we want to read it again and again and again.
And then there are the times when the Bible speaks to me in ways that seem so familiar. Today’s story from Luke’s Gospel is, to my mind, one of those.
For starters, the presumption and self-righteousness of the Pharisee is so familiar. Jesus, who is gaining a lot of notice, is dining with him. More than that, Jesus is allowing a woman, a particular kind of woman, not just to touch him but to put ointment on his feet and bathe them with her tears. The Pharisee is, of course, so much smarter than Jesus. So, he says to himself, “If this man were a prophet [taking Jesus down several notches in his own small mind] then he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Right—if Jesus were truly a prophet, which is to say a righteous man, he wouldn’t let her get near him. Or, at the very least, he would ignore her.
These days Christianity has a pretty bad reputation among most people. I teach undergraduates at a Catholic university, and I can tell you that over and over again I am confronted with their negative estimation of Christianity. Many who are cradle Catholics and have attended Catholic schools their whole lives are fleeing it. They don’t want to have anything to do with it.
Why is that? And how might we bring them back? I think Jesus give us the answer in our reading for today.
What Jesus sees in this woman, this sinner, is her faith. Yes, she is a sinner. She knows very well that she is a sinner. No doubt, she has been told that more than once from the likes of the Pharisee and others. And, what, the Pharisee is not? This is what my students cannot stand. The hypocrisy.
There is much to admire in this woman. She knows herself who she is—a sinner. That’s more than we can say for the Pharisee. She is exceedingly generous, bathing his feet in her tears, kissing them, anointing them with ointment. And we are talking feet! It is well known that feet were especially nasty back in Jesus’ day. She couldn’t possibly care less about that. Moreover, she has made herself completely vulnerable. She knows very well that Jesus not only knows she is a sinner but also the details of her sins. She wouldn’t be there otherwise. And that is the point that she gets and that the Pharisee does not.
Jesus is not about hanging out with the righteous. That’s not what he came to do. Yet, in these days, the message that my students are getting is that to be a Christian is to be self-righteous. To be so sure of your reading of the Bible. To know how much purer and better you are from just about everyone else.
Jesus, as always, has the answer. He knows how to bring people into the church or back into the church. Love. Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace. Yep, this is one of those texts amidst the many that confound me in the Bible that seems super straight forward. Love with a heavy dose of mercy and grace.
Are we up to that kind of love? That is the question I believe that both Jesus and the youth in this country are putting to us. I pray that we can answer YES!
-Sue Trollinger