11th. Sunday, Year C
(2 Samuel
12: 7-10, 13; Galatians 2: 16, 19-21; Luke 7: 36-50.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have a very difficult passage
from St. Paul in our second reading today:
We know that a person is not justified by works of the
Law but through faith in Jesus Christ; through the Law I died to the Law that I
might live for God.
What does Paul mean when he says, through
the Law I died to the Law? How did
he, through the Law die to the Law?
Much has been written over many years by scholars of varying persuasions
and abilities, and so I cannot pretend to offer a solution to the many
difficulties they find in those words; but for all that, I will offer a
suggestion that is both relative to the passage and, I trust, helpful for our
understanding and appreciation of our Gospel today.
St. Paul was a great lover and proponent of the Law as
understood by the Pharisees before he encountered the Risen Lord Jesus in a
vision on his way to Damascus to persecute the Church of God out of zeal for
the traditions of his ancestors in Judaism (cf. Galatians 1: 13s.). He never lost his love for the Law, but after
that encounter with the risen Lord Jesus he came to understand it much better
as God’s instrument for the preparation of His People for the salvation He was
offering them in and through the Lord Jesus, the long promised and ardently
expected Messiah
.
If it had not been for the Law, I would not have known
sin. We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh ... I do the very
thing I hate. ... I delight in the Law of God in my inmost self, with my mind I
am a slave to the Law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me
from this body of death? Thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
(Romans 7: 7, 14- 15, 22, 24-25)
All, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,
as it is written, there is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no
one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have
become worthless; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3: 9-12, 23.)
We asked how did Paul through the
Law die to the Law? It is clear now
that Paul’s knowledge of the Law taught him what was required of him as a convinced
Israelite and subject of the Law, while Paul’s deep self-awareness and great insight
into our human condition also made it most abundantly clear to him that none did,
and none could, keep the Law in all its fullness and integrity.
All who rely on the works of the Law are under a
curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all
the things written in the book of the Law.’ (Galatians 3:10)
Why then the Law?
It was added because of transgressions, until the Offspring would come
to whom the promise had been made. The Law was our disciplinarian until Christ
came so that we might be justified by faith. (Gal. 3:19, 24)
As we now look into the Gospel reading we will see that Simon, the
Pharisee, had little of Paul’s self-knowledge or commitment to the Law: the
proprieties expected when receiving guests were either ignored in Jesus’ case
or else had been forgotten by, or were, perhaps, even unknown to, Simon; and
how easily his solicitude for the reputation of his house caused him to start
criticising, in his heart, the young Rabbi whom he had admiringly
and respectfully invited to share his table:
If this man were a prophet, He would know who and what
sort of woman this is who is touching Him!
Of course it was extremely embarrassing for Simon reclining at table
with Jesus, as indeed it must have been for the others sharing hospitality, when a woman, publicly known for her sins, entered his house – not only uninvited
but also most certainly unwelcome – and,
standing behind Jesus weeping profusely, began to:
Bathe His feet with her tears, wipe them with her
hair, kiss them, and anoint them with ointment.
Nevertheless, how quickly his professed reverence for one he called ‘Teacher’
evaporated in the face of this threat to his own self-esteem and presumed
public standing: If this man were a prophet ... !!
Jesus, however, loved Simon and came to his help for, before Simon could
actually say anything at all:
Jesus said to him IN REPLY,
‘Simon, I have something to say to you ....’
Simon, as we have said, had little in common with Paul, but the sinful
woman – as regards her response to Jesus – resembled Paul very much in his profound
appreciation of, and total self-abandonment to, Jesus.
Paul gave himself to Jesus -- in response to a personal vision and ‘mystical’
encounter with the Risen Lord -- most humbly, lovingly, and unreservedly, on
the basis of his profound understanding and appreciation of God’s revelation in
the Scriptures entrusted to Israel’s custody for fulfilment: how penetratingly
he recognized his need of the redeeming grace of Jesus, his Lord and Saviour! The woman, most certainly had encountered and
heard Jesus previously, perhaps only once, possibly a few times, because
she came to Him as one loathing herself for love of His Goodness.
Paul learned his self-distrust from the Scriptures and from his vision
of the Risen Lord; the woman embraced her self-loathing, it would seem, simply
from encountering and learning from the man, Jesus of Nazareth, as He walked
and talked in the course of His public ministry. In her respect we can fruitfully recall some teaching
of St. Thomas Aquinas who used to say that a unlettered peasant could know God
better than he himself, intuitively, that is, by the heart; because knowledge
of God does not end in, is not fulfilled in, concepts but reality. A theologian weighed down with concepts,
though they be correct, can remain cut off from the Reality, while an
‘ignorant’ person can reach that Reality better, thanks to the transparency of
more elementary concepts.
Does not the Psalmist express himself in very similar words?
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did
my mother conceive me. Behold, You
delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret
heart. (Psalm 51:5-6)
The woman loved the Lord and suffered deeply from the open scorn and
contempt she received when she tried to draw near to Him; and Paul’s very
vocation as a Christian was to suffer – more than any other apostle – for his
love of the Lord:
The Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go, for he is an instrument
whom I have chosen to bring My name before Gentiles and kings and before the
People of Israel; I Myself will show him how much he must suffer for
the sake of My name. (Acts 9:
15s.)
For both of them, however, faith was the crown of their relationship
with, and consummated their love for, Jesus:
Insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in
the Son of God, Who has loved me and given Himself up for me.
Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘I tell
you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love; the one
to whom little is forgiven loves little.
He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you, go in peace.’
There are religious groups today, however, who gain followers or recruit
supporters by offering them someone, something, to hate and/or violently oppose;
offering the exaltation and satisfaction of humanly disordered emotions as the
fulfilment of a pseudo-religious involvement and the earthly foretaste of a
promised and equally pseudo heavenly reward.
The world around us also proclaims earthly emotional experience and
satisfaction – never openly hateful, indeed, but not without deep-rooted
intolerance -- as the only worthwhile and publicly acceptable ideal and reward
... love is all!! Love, that is, which
is to be felt and enjoyed, not to be evaluated and most certainly not to be constrained,
by any other considerations other than the human, earthly satisfaction it
affords the individuals concerned and the approval it gains them from others. Catholicism, on the other hand, offers -- supremely
and solely -- the Truth of Jesus which evokes a response of unique Love that
can only be truly expressed through and fulfilled in Faith.
Jesus once used most solemn words that bring out in total clarity the deepest
and most extensive problem and need in the Church today: lack of Faith in the
face of the emotional attractions of religious extremism and self-approval and
self-satisfaction of comfortable worldly conformity:
When the Son of Man comes, will
He find faith on earth?
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we should treasure and try to develop our
personal Faith in Jesus and commitment to His Church with heartfelt gratitude
and serious endeavour, and pray devoutly for the growth of Faith in Mother
Church and for God’s special blessing on all called to proclaim and propagate
that Faith throughout the world. Towards that end let us cast a final glance
at King David in our first reading today, for he can make clear to us another
most beautiful characteristic of faith.
Nathan said to David: ‘Thus says the Lord God of
Israel: “Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in His sight? ... Now
therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have
despised Me and taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.”’ Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned
against the Lord.’
There we can see the beauty of faith in David. He had an ‘intuitive’ relationship with God
like that of the sinful woman with regard to Jesus in our Gospel reading; he was
weak at times indeed, but he did not seek to justify his behaviour before God’s
judgement: I have sinned against the Lord! The extremists of today would say to any such
words of judgement against them or their actions, ‘We were forced to, we had no
choice but to, behave, respond, as we did’; whilst the world of human righteousness and political conformity would
most probably not be able to understand any such words against their works or
policies: ‘This world’s love guided us in all that we did or sought to
do.’ Before God and the truth, David was totally simple,
with no complications of pride, no refuge in self-justification. His example is most worthy of our admiration
and imitation.
