June 16, 2013

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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 93

Reading 1

This is the famous episode when David commits adultery with Bathsheba and then has her husband murdered. You should read about it here.

2 SM 12:7-10, 13

Then the Prophet Nathan came to confront David about his sin.  

Nathan said to David:
“Thus says the LORD God of Israel:
‘I anointed you king of Israel.
I rescued you from the hand of Saul.
I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own.
I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.
Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight?
You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword;
you took his wife as your own,
and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.
Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,
because you have despised me
and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’
Then David said to Nathan,
“I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan answered David:
“The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin:
you shall not die.”

The videos above give some of the background for this excerpt which the Church provided us.  I think it is important to see here the foreshadowing of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  King David is communicating to God through a Prophet.  And he communicates his repentance.  The Prophet then communicates to King David, God's response.  He informs the King that God has forgiven his sin.

If you read the entire book of 2 Samuel, you will find that King David had to atone for his sins in accordance with all the prophecies which Nathan pronounced upon him that day.  Even though he had been forgiven, he had to atone for them.  This is the basis of our belief in Purgatory, where we atone for our sins even after we die.  And for our belief in expiation of sins by suffering. 

Responsorial PsalmPS 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11

R. (cf. 5c) Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

God will forgive all who repent from the heart.  We are blessed above all others in that we have a Sacrament, wherein, we present ourselves to God and receive absolution from His representative, the Priest.  

Reading 2GAL 2:16, 19-21

Brothers and sisters:
We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law
but through faith in Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus
that we may be justified by faith in Christ
and not by works of the law,
because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Forgiveness of sins is justification.  We who believe in Christ are justified via the Sacraments.  In Baptism and Confession especially, when are sins are wiped away, we are reconciled to God and thus justified apart from any works.  There is nothing      which we do except repent and turn to God and beg for His mercy.  This is            justification apart from works in the Sacraments of Jesus Christ.
For through the law I died to the law,
that I might live for God.
I have been crucified with Christ;
yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me;
insofar as I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God
who has loved me and given himself up for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if justification comes through the law,
then Christ died for nothing.

This is more especially a reference to the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, wherein we are united to God when we eat His flesh and drink His blood.  

Something which might surprise people is that justification or forgiveness of sins does not occur through the keeping of the Commandments.  Justification is done by the mercy of God.  God alone forgives sins.  But God forgives the sins of those who have repented and turned to Him.  One can't turn to God and continue doing evils deeds in transgression of the Commandments.  Doers of the Law are justified by God (Romans 2:13).  

GospelLK 7:36—8:3

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Simon, I have something to say to you.”
“Tell me, teacher, ” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply,
“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
“Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven
because she has shown great love.

Love, love, love, love.  We are blessed to have the Sacraments of Jesus Christ where we are forgiven for our sins and reconciled to God.  But love, pure love,             accomplishes the same thing.  It is not something which we do, but something which   God does for those who love His people.  Love covers a multitude of sins.  God is    love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The others at table said to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?”
But he said to the woman,
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Jesus forgave the woman her sins because of her great love for Him.  Notice that her faith is so great that it is the same as love.  
Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others who provided for them
out of their resources.

Then there is a mention of certain women.  The first mentioned is Mary of Magdala.  She happens to be the woman who anointed Jesus that day.  St. Mary Magdalen.

The alternate reading is the virtually the same.  I'll leave it without comment.

OrLK 7:36-50

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Simon, I have something to say to you.”
“Tell me, teacher, ” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred day’s wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply,
“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
“Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven
because she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The others at table said to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?”
But he said to the woman,
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”