{"id":4479,"date":"2016-06-11T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T00:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/?p=4479"},"modified":"2016-11-14T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T19:27:53","slug":"two-kinds-of-sinners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/spiritual-reflections\/two-kinds-of-sinners","title":{"rendered":"Two kinds of sinners"},"content":{"rendered":"
A reflection by Fr. Dave Warren, S.F.M., for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. First Reading: II Samuel 12.7-10, 13; Second Reading: Galatians 2.16, 19-21; Gospel: Luke 7.36-8.3<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bible is full of lies. Well, maybe that\u2019s putting it too strongly. Let\u2019s just say that the Bible is full of distortions. Here\u2019s what I mean. I looked up today\u2019s gospel reading in my Bible and what did I see? I saw a heading in bold print: \u201cThe woman who was a sinner<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bible is full of distortions and this heading is one of them.<\/p>\n Now, before you denounce me to my superior, please allow me to say something in my defence. When the Bible was written, it did not contain any headings. They were added by later editors with the idea that headings would help people to understand the Bible. So, \u201cThe woman who was a sinner<\/strong>\u201d isn\u2019t really part of the Bible. Some man inserted this heading.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t say, \u201cSomebody <\/em>inserted this heading,\u201d I said, \u201cSome<\/em> man<\/em> inserted this heading.\u201d I\u2019m sure the person was a man, not a woman, because he sees in the story the deviant behaviour of the woman but not the deviant behaviour of the man. The woman is not even the central figure in the story. The central figure in the story\u2014after Jesus, of course\u2014is Simon the Pharisee.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to suggest an alternative title for today\u2019s gospel. Instead of \u201cThe woman who was a<\/strong> sinner,<\/strong>\u201d how about \u201cThe man who didn\u2019t love Jesus<\/strong>\u201d? Simon the Pharisee didn\u2019t love Jesus. He neglected to greet Jesus with the most basic hospitality of the time. In contrast to Simon, the woman in the story showed great love for Jesus.<\/p>\n Jesus understands the situation this way: the woman showed great love<\/em> because she had experienced great forgiveness; <\/em>Simon showed little love<\/em> because he had experienced little forgiveness.<\/em><\/p>\n What is Jesus saying here? Jesus is not saying that the more we love Him the more we are forgiven. He\u2019s saying that the more we experience forgiveness<\/em> the more we love Him. Jesus is not suggesting that we increase the number and the size of our sins so that we will have more and bigger sins to bring to Confession and so qualify for greater forgiveness. No, the experience of forgiveness doesn\u2019t depend on the number and the size of our sins. The experience of forgiveness depends on our awareness <\/em>of our sinfulness.<\/p>\n\n
The woman who showed great love for Jesus was not necessarily more sinful than Simon. But she was certainly more aware <\/em>of her sinfulness than Simon was aware of his.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n