11 th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 13 June 2010,

Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The reflections last week were easy to write as Corpus Christi is such a wonderful occasion for remembering the gift of Jesus to us, namely, Himself.

This weekend’s few words are not as easy – at least for me. The theme of God’s love is continued but this time we are expected to do some of the giving and not leave all to God. We are asked to give our heart-felt sorrow to God for having let Him and others down by how we have acted. It is easy for me to say ‘sorry’ with my lips but let it go no deeper than that. Saying sorry is a good first step but it is only a beginning.

David, an ancestor of Jesus, admits that he has been unfaithful to God by taking the wife of Uriah. Not only that, but David has Uriah killed in battle to get him out of the way. Nathan the prophet reminds David that God had anointed him king over Israel and blessed him in many ways. And the response of David is to be unfaithful to God in these very serious ways. The prophet Nathan promises David that God forgives him but the leadership of the people will no longer be his.

The words of David to Nathan could not be repeated often enough by me (and perhaps by you), “I have sinned against the Lord.” The preacher or the prophet is not telling David that he is a sinner, he is crying out to God for mercy by his honest admission. There is a danger that I may make excuses for my sins and, like Adam say, that it was someone else’s fault that I sinned.

Once David has claimed his own sinfulness, he can now enter into a new life of communion with God. He has faced the truth about his life and can now move ahead on the basis of truth and not of denial. This incident in David’s life took place over 800 years before Jesus was born. In 21 st Century there is the same need to admit the truth about my life. Otherwise, I will not be building on a firm foundation.

God can do anything. But He respects us so much and the freedom that He has given us, that it is our privilege to come to God and say with David, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’. Here is where the amazing twist comes. Once God reads the sincerity in our hearts and hears the words on our lips, His one and only reaction is forgiveness. This is God’s way of saying how much we are loved and wanted.

The lady in the Gospel didn’t need anyone to tell her that ‘she had a bad name in the town’. She knew it only too well. She must have come across Jesus and listened to him before ‘she had heard he was dining with the Pharisee’. His name was Simon and was probably upset that such a person could ruin his dinner party. Jesus asks, ‘Simon, you see this woman?’ Well, Simon must have thought that his moment of praise had come and that the woman would be shown the door. The lady with the alabaster jar of ointment turns out to be heroine and Simon is left with a red face. The woman was without doubt a sinner, but she knew that she was forgiven ‘her sins, her many sins’. Now she cannot contain her tears of gratitude and love.

I wonder did Simon feel uneasy when Jesus says, ‘It is the man who is forgiven little who shows little love’. I can’t criticise Simon if I have not reached the degree of love shown by the lady who shed tears of repentance and love at the feet of Jesus. I wonder did Jesus remember this meal when at the Last Supper on the night before His Passion He washed the feet of his Apostles.

When we receive Holy Communion it is good that we do so with the mind and heart of that great lady who knew what it was to be forgiven and to be loved. She poured out her heart to her Lord and Saviour and that is what we try to do at every Mass.

Aidan Troy, C.P. [Aodhn Troighthigh, C.P.]