Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
1 Cor 15:1-11 + Lk 7:36-50
Hidden in our Gospel today is a beautiful little lesson in humility. It goes like this: the passage usually rendered, “her many sins are forgiven her because she has shown such great love,” is more accurately to be rendered, as we read in today’s text: “her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.”
It’s simply a case of allowing those who know the Sacred Scriptures to school us in a more accurate interpretation of God’s Word! This can take humility to accept if we were convinced that we had it right with the interpretation we’ve grown accustomed to.
In this case, it makes quite a difference. The Gospel is telling us that God gratuitously forgives us. Because of that, we respond, as did the woman, with love and gratitude. It’s not that we do something to merit God’s forgiveness. This affects our entire life!
St. Paul, in our first reading today, gives a foundation for it when he writes that “he handed on to you [his converts] as of first importance what [he] had received: that Christ died for our sins….”
It’s foundational for the life of the Christian that he or she lives in gratitude for God’s forgiveness, either because he or she has been forgiven or has been given the grace to be prevented from sinning.
Hear it beautifully put by the doctor of the Church, St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “How can I fear a God,” she asked, “who is nothing but Mercy and Love?” That was her definition of God: “Nothing but Mercy and Love.”
This was the experience of Jesus with which the woman in today’s Gospel was reacting.
Am I grateful for God’s mercy?
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources