Daily Thought For September 17, 2020

 "Mercy" 

Lectio

Luke 7:36–50

Meditatio

Simon the Pharisee bears a striking resemblance to another man in Luke’s Gospel: the Pharisee in the parable who found himself in the Temple with a tax collector. Like the unnamed Pharisee, Simon assumes he knows the other person’s relationship with God. Jesus, as usual, responds to the occasion with a parable, this time about two debtors. If the woman, because she is forgiven much, shows great love, Simon needs forgiveness for his “lesser” debt, too.

Simon may not have had any big-ticket items on his debit sheet with God, but as Jesus lists his omissions, one by one, it all seems to add up to a kind of contempt—or at the very least, indifference toward Jesus. Even the fact of the lesser debt is a sign of equal, if not greater, weakness on his part: it is one thing to be incapable of repaying an enormous sum—but to need to have a paltry debt written off? Simon just doesn’t have eyes to see how much God in his mercy has forgiven him. He can’t take his eyes off the woman at Jesus’ feet.

Neither can Jesus. At the end of his life, when Jesus himself wants to make a striking statement about the reverence, love, and humility his disciples owe one another, he will do for his disciples something very much like what this woman did for him. He knows the image will stay with the disciples.

Oratio

Jesus, why did Simon even invite you to dinner? You came to his house, but he did not say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter” (see Lk 7:6). Maybe he was so busy monitoring his fulfillment of all the precepts of the Law that he didn’t have any interior space left to attend to you, much less become aware of what was still lacking. Omissions aren’t addressed because we notice them; they come about because our attention is misdirected! Help me keep my gaze on you, and to begin to see as you see: not omissions as such, but the glory of God in all things.

Contemplatio

“I keep the LORD ever before me” (Ps 16:8).

Daughters of St. Paul. (2011). Ordinary Grace Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections. (M. G. Dateno & M. L. Trouvé, Eds.) (pp. 126–127). Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media.