THE REPENTANT WOMAN

THE REPENTANT WOMAN

 (A biblical reflection on the 11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [Year C]- June 16, 2013) 

First Reading: 2Sam 12:7-10,13; Psalms: Ps 32:1-2,5,7,11; Second Reading: Gal 2:16,19-21; Gospel Reading: Luke 7:36-8:3 (Luke 7:36-50) 

If I have any regret about the New Testament it’s that none of the writers was a woman. We miss the feminine understanding of the story of Jesus Christ. Luke is the writer who comes closest to feminine sensitivity. Immediately after this story of repentant woman he draws our attention to the role of several woman in the ministry of Jesus.

Luke sometimes pairs off the story of a man with a corresponding episode about a woman. Invariably the woman will be shown as more open to faith than the man. For instance, Zechariah and Mary both received angelic annunciations but his doubting is in sharp contrast to her faith and obedience.

Much of the important action in Luke’s gospel takes place at tables. In this story we meet the man who is master of the table. He is a Pharisee, somebody very concerned about the rightness of life and very much given to warning people about the danger of contamination …… or the occasions of sin.

In one way he represents the power of the male world. He had the initiative, organizational ability and necessary wherewithal to invite guests to a banquet. It was customary to invite some special guest whose wisdom would enrich the table. Simon – it’s significant that we are told his name but not the woman’s – had sufficient influence to get Jesus as his star turn. Simon was a religious man with power and influence. But later in the story his weakness will be revealed.

A woman came in. Unnamed, she is one of Luke’s anonymous little people, so dearly loved by God. But even worse than having no name, she actually had a bad name in the town. A bad name doesn’t just happen: it has to be spread. Whose tongues did the spreading? I bet it was all the “good” people.

This “bad” woman needed to put her life together …… to reach reconciliation within herself. By God’s grace she found the source of reconciliation …… in Jesus, come to save sinners.

See how this woman goes to confession. Her language is made up of tears and touch. Her actions are with kisses and an extravagant anointing. Did Jesus ask her “How many times?” or that most naïve of questions, “Did you take pleasure in it?”

Lucky for her that she did not come along centuries later in search of reconciliation. A wooden grill would not have understood her tears nor responded to her deep need for touch. In addition to his purple stole, every minister of reconciliation should come equipped with a spare packet of Kleenex!

The story comes back to the man. “He said to himself” …… it’s always a bad sign when you start talking to yourself: it shows there’s a big argument going on inside: an argument with that part of life you’re repressing. And when we are attempting to deny part of our reality, one of the defence mechanisms we employ is to shelter behind a law. It protects our feeling of righteousness.

The law said that a rabbi should stay at a safe distance from any woman in public. Now here was a woman with a bad name, and this man, Jesus, is letting Himself be touched by the evil creature. Thus Simon is staying in his head, judging and assessing guilt. His mental powerhouse is now shown to be the trap that imprisons him for he is incapable of responding with feminine heart to the situation.

How can one break through the defensive screen? Jesus uses the story of the two debtors to unhinge the prison door. He invites Simon to come out from behind his defensive screen by responding to a question. Not about debts or correctness of behaviour, but about love. “Which of the two will love him more?” Jesus sees the entire encounter, not as an issue about sins and contamination by bad people, but as a day when love is released from beneath the crushing burden of guilt and debt. She must have been released of a terrible burden, such is the extravagance of her love. “Her many sins must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such love”.

Simon, the conscientious Pharisee, worked hard on the duties of his love for God. But the anonymous feminine heart discovered that religion begins in letting God love us.

As a man ordained to priestly ministry in the Church I feel uncomfortably close to Simon the Pharisee. What challenges me is that many of us who frequently, even daily, occupy seats at the table of the Lord, may be veryu distant from His heart because of our cold judgments and unfeeling principles. Jesus may be far closer to the hearts of some who are barred from receiving Him at the altar. Like the unnamed woman, they may not sit with Him at table, but they know of His mercy and they come from behind Him to touch Him in prayer.

Perhaps it’s better to have loved extravagantly, though not always properly, than to have lived ever so rightly, though not lovingly. Best of all, of course, is to live rightly and to love extravagantly.

Note: Taken from Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFMCap., THE GOOD NEWS OF LUKE’S YEAR, Dublin, Ireland: Cathedral Books/The Columbia Press, Revised Edition, 1991 (1994 reprinting), pages 155-157.

Jakarta, 14^th of June 2013 

A Christian Pilgrim