A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Of course, we've been reading Saint Luke, you know, morning after morning. These these passages are are continuous in the, gospel account. So once again, I recommend that you get your New Testament out and read Saint Luke beginning at page one and finishing. It'll take you about less than an hour.
Today's reading is something special. Jesus said is that what I want? There was a certain pharisee. This is the story, you know, of our lord. He's at a at a dinner at a pharisee's house.
Notice it wasn't some poor man's house. It was a pharisee's house. And then the woman who was a sinner comes in and bathes his feet with perfume and and anoints him with dries him with her hair. So there was a certain Pharisee who invited Jesus to eat with him. Jesus went to the Pharisee's home and reclined.
A woman known in the town to be a sinner learned that Jesus was dining in the Pharisees' house. She brought in a bottle of perfumed oil and stood behind Jesus at his feet weeping so that her tears fell upon his feet. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissing them, and, perfuming them with the oil, the precious ointment. Well, when his host, the pharisee, saw all of this, the pharisee said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort of woman this is that touches him, that she is a sinner. In answer to his thoughts, notice that, Jesus said to the Pharisee, Simon, I have some something to propose to you.
And Simon answered, teacher, speak. Tell me all about it. And then our lord told him all about it. Two men owed money to a certain money lender. One of them owed a total of 500 coins, the other only 50.
Since neither of the men was able to repay the debt, the creditor wrote off both of the debts. Now our lord says, which of them was more grateful to him? Well, of course, the pharisee, Simon, answered, well, I presume it was he to whom he remitted the larger sub. Jesus said, you're right. That's correct.
Then turning to the woman, Jesus said to Simon now you get the picture. He turns to the woman, but he's looking at he says to Simon, the Pharisee, you see this woman here? I came to your home, and you provided me with no water to wash my feet, which was a very customary thing to do. She has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss of welcome, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman here has anointed my feet with precious perfume. I tell you, Simon, that is why her many sins are forgiven because of her great love. Little is forgiven the one whose love is small. Then Jesus said to the woman, your sins are forgiven. Now at that, his fellow guests began to ask one another, who is this that he even forgives sin?
Because they knew only god can forgive sin. Now meanwhile, Jesus said to the woman, your faith has been your salvation. Now go in peace. This is the gospel according to Saint Luke of the Lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
As I'm sure you have experienced, any number of interpretations have been given, I guess, are being given to this text. Some people use it, you know, as an excuse to sin, that our lord here shows a a disregard for sin. Well, they haven't read the text. That's all I can say. And you can't argue with a person who's arguing about a text which they haven't read.
You're wasting your time. It's crazy. Now here here are a number of points. First of all, there is no there is no persuasive evidence that this woman was a prostitute because contrary to what some people seem to think, there are other ways men and women can sin besides sins having to do with sex. You see, today, if you say he or she is a virtuous man or woman, everybody thinks of only one thing, that they're living a chaste life.
Whereas, our my late and good friend, Saint Thomas Aquinas, you know, says that the sins of the passion, sexual sexual sins, are the most shameful but are not the most sinful. And anybody with one half of a brain cell ought to know that. A sin against god like blasphemy, like idolatry, sins against the holy spirit, they are real honest to god sins. Whereas you take sins which are against which come out of the the past and you you think, what's one of the great sins? It's a drunkard.
A man lying in the street drunk. That is horrible. How it's terrible. There may not be any sin involved in it at all. But you see, it's very nasty.
It's very embarrassing to be walking along on a nice day in New York and to find somebody drunk on the street rolling in the gutter, literally. And there may not be any sin there at all. And yet plenty of people, good, respectable members of society, took an oath not to go on a strike, took an oath before god, and violated their oath. You know what I'm referring to. How do you did anybody say that was terrible?
Were they shocked? Of course, they were. Great deal of public sympathy was with them, and yet that is a crime against god to take an oath and to violate it. Remember, god sees straight. God sees things as they are.
Now another point. You see, the Pharisee invites our lord to dinner to dine. You know, it's a formal affair, and yet he doesn't do the ordinary things. Just think remember, there wasn't an a lot of asphalt streets over in in Israel in the time of our lord. Matter of fact, they didn't they weren't even paved.
And if you've been walking, most of the travel was done on your own two good feet. And when you came into a house, it was a very practical thing to wash your feet. Very practical. If you ever as a kid and maybe later on went around barefooted, you know what I'm talking about. But here, the Pharisee notice, our lord was his guest, but he didn't give him the usual amenities.
He didn't wash his feet. He didn't give him a welcoming kiss. He didn't perfume his hair. In other words, he neglected the basic forms of etiquette. Emily Post would be turning in her grave.
And our lord points that out to him, where this woman that the pharisee won't even touch. Because you see, if if if the pharisee touched that woman, then he too would be he would be then in a state of uncleanliness. And here's our lord who's supposed to be a sharp guy letting this woman fondle his feet and kissing him and wiping him with her hair. You see, you get the picture. It's absolutely dramatic.
It's spectacular. But you see how logical, how Socratic, our lord is. He doesn't send you simple declarative sentences. He questions Simon, and by his questions leads Simon to his own conclusion, which is his own condemnation. Our lord, I don't know whether he ever read anything about Socrates, but he knew how to argue.
Believe me. You can learn a lot of logic from the four gospels. So this is a very dramatic scene. But get it. Get the picture.
Our lord doesn't have a kind word to say for sin here. But when he says to the woman, because you have loved much, your sins are forgiven. That doesn't mean he approved what she did or whatever it was. We do not know what she did. In other words, there are 10 commandments, and a lot of them have to do with something other than sex.
And so this is a tremendous you see, it's very right today, somebody said one of the greatest one of the greatest obstacles to worshiping god is religion. Do you understand what that means? Well, read today's gospel carefully, and you'll see what it means. People can can can get so wrapped up in what they call religious practices. Think of welfare.
Think of taking care of the poor, housing the homeless, taking care of babies, trying to keep babies from being murdered in their mother's womb. These are all good actions, but not one of them presupposes you have to even believe in god. The the most god fearing pagan can do all of them, and people who are and people who aren't even pagans who have no religion, who simply think this world is all there is, and so we must make the best of it. And they are a lot of good people. They can do all of this, and many of them do do all this and do it well and do it well.
Some of your great philanthropists have been atheists. So remember, good works doesn't mean at all that they're attached to Christ or to God or anything. It just means that you're a humanitarian. We are not called upon to be humanitarians. We are called upon to be followers of Jesus Christ.
And it's love of god that comes first. Jesus said it, and it's hard to do. Hard to do. Believe me. And you know I'm speaking the truth if you've tried it.
And yet that's the first commandment. The first commandment isn't to love yourself. The the first commandment isn't to love your neighbor as yourself. The first commandment is to love god above all things with your heart, with your soul. That is the great commandment of love.
Name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.