Presence

Lord, You are always there waiting for me. May I never be too busy to find time to spend in Your presence.

Scripture

Luke 7:36-50

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine. And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” “A certain moneylender had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Reflection

It isn’t difficult to imagine the woman in Simon’s house praying the Song of Songs. “How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all manner of spices!”
This woman described in Luke 7 breaks upon an uncomfortable scene. Jesus is being entertained at the house of Simon the Pharisee, who has welcomed him with minimal hospitality. There is no kiss of greeting; no offer is made to wash the dust of the road from a guest’s feet; there is no anointing of the head with oil. What is behind Simon’s invitation, that he receives Jesus in a way that is so guarded, if not openly hostile? Perhaps curiosity, or perhaps a desire to interrogate Jesus and test his orthodoxy – we are not told.
Into this unfriendly environment comes someone who is even less welcome, “a woman in the city, who was a sinner” who began to bathe the feet of Jesus with her tears and to dry them with her hair. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.” The forgiveness came first and, critically, the woman accepted that she had been forgiven.
The woman never speaks; her love and repentance are beyond words. This is the most sensual scene in the New Testament – the cascade of hair, the perfumed air, the smoothing on of the aromatic ointment, the woman’s lips pressed over and over again on Christ’s bare feet. He accepts her touch as fitting and right; he responds to her embodied prayer and he welcomes her unconscious intimacy. He sees beyond her reputation and her behaviour and into her heart.
If we cannot accept that we ourselves are forgiven, we cannot forgive others. If we cannot weep for ourselves, how can we “weep with those who weep”, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans?
Where Simon sees sex, Jesus sees love. This unspeaking woman is praying with her body and with her heart. It’s a way we seldom pray.

Prayer

Lord, the faults we most dislike in others tend to be our own faults. The weaknesses we most despise in others are our own weaknesses. Help me to understand that if I am devoured by self-loathing for my failings, I will find it very hard to forgive these failings in others. If I cannot love myself when I fall, how can I love others in their falling? As I pray now, help me not to hold back like Simon, but to see myself as I really am, in all my vulnerability, and to lay my cheek with confidence against your beautiful feet.

Amen

Glory to you, Father, source of all being,

to you, Jesus, Word made flesh,

to you Holy Spirit, Comforter,

as it was before time began,

is now and shall be into the future.

Amen.