(Homily
for THURSDAY of the 24TH Week in Ordinary Time, Year B. 2015).
Bible
Study: Timothy 4:12-16 and Luke 7:36-50.
In today’s
Gospel passage, we encounter a woman who received forgiveness of her sins as a
reward for her act of humility and love. She had a bad reputation in the community,
even the Bible does not mention her name, but simply refers to her as “sinner”
but she did not allow her bad name prevent her from displaying the content of
her heart at the feet of Jesus. While others considered her action as an
attempt to seduce Jesus, (and even queried Jesus for not kicking her out
immediately), Jesus being God could see her heart; he saw her sincere sorrow
for sins and desire for relationship with God.
If we were
to analyse step by step the action of this woman in this Gospel passage, we would
see that each time we make a good confession, we are basically doing the same thing
this woman did.
Firstly,
she would have decided to stay in her room and simply pray to God for
forgiveness but she had to come to Jesus in a rather public place. For many
people, their major problem with the sacrament of confession is how to bring
themselves before a priest to talk about issues that are very personal to them.
This is the humiliating part of confession, taking out one’s secrets before
another, but the truth is that without humility, we cannot receive forgiveness.
Humility
not only brings out of the comfort of our rooms, it also enables us to accept
the fact that we have not been perfect. Humility leads to true contrition for
sins. This woman stood at the feet of Jesus weeping so much so that she wet the
feet of Jesus with her tears.
Some people
go for confession and while mentioning their sins, they begin to smile as if
they are listing their achievements. It shows a lack of preparation and
playfulness for the sacrament of confession. It also shows that such persons
are not really ready to let go of their sins as they not only take pleasure in
the sins themselves, they also take pleasure in talking about the sins. Such
persons only end up deceiving themselves rather than receive forgiveness.
The foundation
of a good confession is sincere sorrow for our sins. If we truly examine our
conscience, if we were truly to come to terms with the gravity of what it means
to offend God or better put, if we really loved God as much as we should, then
we would be moved to tears over our slightest faults and sins. A heart that is
cold towards God finds it very difficult to admit sinfulness not to mention to cry
over sins, because everything always seems right to him or her.
Another thing
this woman did was to pour and expensive ointment over the feet of Jesus. This oil
must have caused her a fortune yet did not mind “wasting” it on the feet of
Jesus. Forgiveness is not free of charge, one has to pay a price to obtain it. You
will agree with me that you tend to appreciate more, those things that cost you
a fortune to acquire. Even when God offers forgiveness to us, we do not just
collect it with empty hands. You have to let go of something; a sacrifice has
to be made. This sacrifice is what is known as PENANCE. Penance is that which
the priest asks us to do when we go for confession, penance is the expensive
oil that we pour at the feet of Jesus. Even if the penance you are given seems
light and easy bear in mind that it is a sacrifice, it is your alabaster jar.
When last
did you go for confession? Did you make a good confession? What inspired you to
go for confession, is it because your heart bleeds for having offended the one
you love so much or because you saw others going, or was it the case that you
wanted to just wanted to tell the priest how good you are? Did you remember to
do your penance as an offering or did you just gloss over it?
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, increase my love for you so that I may rather choose to die than even
the slightest offence against you. May sin never reign in my life. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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