LUKE 7:44-48 (2024)

 LUKE 7:44-48

Then turning towards 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 sins, which were many, 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.’

---- mine,

There are two types of gazes, one is the gaze of Simon the Pharisee, self-righteous, holier than thou, pompous, judgmental, and condemnatory. My little ones, the lost, repentant sinners who are already wounded, are crushed repeatedly by this kind of pitiless, merciless gaze and relentless denunciation. The other kind of gaze is God's. It is a tender, merciful, compassionate, and loving gaze. I came for the sick, the sinner, the brokenhearted, the rejected, the lost. The pharisaical, proud, haughty, conceited, self-content hypocrite has no need of Me. I came to seek and save the sinner who seeks healing, restoration, forgiveness, and peace. Despite pointing out Simon's deliberate lack of respect in extending to Me the common courtesies shown by a host to his guest, he remained unabashed and unmoved. The woman on the other hand did all that the host neglected to do and did it excellently. And you, ---- my own, how much longer will you stay away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation? How much longer will you put it off? Do you not wish to hear me say the words I said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven, go in peace.’