Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(I
Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7:36-50)
The
main attraction at the year 2000 World Youth Day in Toronto was, of course,
Pope John Paul II. Even at eighty, the
saint was able to move people deeply.
During the event a young prostitute accompanied a youth group at a local
parish to the pope’s mass. There she heard
the pope say to all the youth that he loved them. The words changed the prostitute’s life. Many men, she said, had told her before that
they loved her but that this one meant it.
The story mirrors today’s gospel.
In
part the issue of the passage is the claim that Jesus is a prophet. Simon, the
Pharisee, denies it because Jesus allows the woman to wash his feet with her
tears and wipe them with her hair. But Jesus shows himself to be a prophet by
reading the Pharisee’s mind. Not only
that, his being a prophet is confirmed by pronouncement of forgiveness. Jesus says that her demonstration of love is a
response to being forgiven of many sins.
Jesus
showed God’s great love for the world. He
did not seek pleasure or consolation. He
died on the cross as the supreme sacrifice that wins for us the forgiveness of
sin. We are both humbled and edified to
consider -- like the Toronto prostitute – that he meant it when he showed his
love for us.
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