18 September 2025 - hence, she has shown great love

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.

Wouldn't many of us be sympathetic to the response of the Pharisee to this seeming gratuitous display of excessive sentimentality? Sometimes we do see people who seem to go a little above and beyond the liturgical norms in their prayers. Perhaps it is by taking up a majority of the floor space in an adoration chapel by laying flat before the Lord. Perhaps it is by striking one's breast at times and frequencies greater than the rubrics prescribe. We may wonder if those people really are weeping, as they seem to be, after receiving Holy Communion. All of this can seem like uncomfortable excess when we ourselves aren't feeling it. And this can be true even if we have previously felt such heightened affection for Jesus to some degree. The contrast of others experiencing it when we are at a normal level, or even in a period of dryness, can be hard to accept. It may tempt us to take offense at the person making a scene. We may make inferences about his character, wondering how he managed to work himself up into such a state. Obviously he must be different from our eminently rational and reasonable selves. And probably he is, but not in the way we imagine.

Which of them will love him more?"
Simon said in reply,
"The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven."

With our rational minds we know, because we have been told, that we have been forgiven a debt that was incalculably large, utterly beyond our means to repay. But to this we respond as though it were altogether unsurprising and matter of fact. Of course God would do this. He is God, after all. We are seldom surprised by the sheer and unexpected magnitude of the grace we have been given. But it is really something that we could never have expected, since we did not deserve it, since God did not owe it. Even our creation was nothing but sheer grace. Having squandered that grace, why would we assume we would automatically receive forgiveness, especially considering what that forgiveness entailed? Yet even knowing all this is not enough to make us feel anything. Head knowledge and heart knowledge are worlds apart. It is inadvisable to try work ourselves up to experience such things. Doing so tends to lead to the false sentimentality of which we are rightly critical. But it is nevertheless good and desirable to experience a true revelation of the reality of grace, one thick enough to fill both our hearts and our minds. It is not something which we can produce. But it is something which we may sometimes receive as a gift, if we are open to it. A good preliminary step in openness is not to judge others whom we see receiving it before our eyes.

When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
...
You did not give me a kiss,
...
You did not anoint my head with oil

One tricky thing is that the woman's level of affection for Jesus must have made it hard for her to take the lack of common courtesy shown by the Pharisee. She must have been moved to make up for his omission by going above and beyond. So for this reason as well, because it highlighted his failure as a host, it caused him to feel agitation and to lash out at both Jesus, whom he had invited, and the woman, who received his countenance. Sometimes when we feel agitated by others it may be because they are making us pay attention to our own faults or failings or deficiencies. These are actually opportunities to learn things about ourselves that are otherwise hidden or hard to see. Really, this Pharisee learned so much from this encounter that he ought to have thanked the woman profusely and asked Jesus how he might come to know what she clearly knew.

So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;
hence, she has shown great love.

The woman was not forgiven on account of her impressive display of love. Rather, that demonstration was the result of knowing the power of forgiveness in her life. Knowing this power is meant to motivate us as well. It may not always result in affectionate feelings. But it can always motivate us to to do our best to show Jesus love by how we treat both him and our brothers and sisters, the people whom he loves.

Rend Collective - Alabaster