Repent, Do Penance And Renew Your Life

Homily 06 16 2013
11th Sunday OT - C

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A certain young woman was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time.

As she checked out her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy. So she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast.

Arriving at the impressive home, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered, poodle. The dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young woman's shoes and followed her around all evening.

At the end of the evening, the pleased parents remarked, "Cleo really likes you, dear, and she is an excellent judge of character. We are delighted to welcome you into our little family."

It seems that perhaps Cleo was a better judge of bacon grease than she was a judge of character.

The Pharisees who invited Jesus for a banquet believed that Jesus wasn't a very good judge of character when he allowed a sinful woman to kiss his feet.

The central theme of today's readings is an invitation to repent, do penance and renew our lives instead of carrying the heavy baggage of our sins.

Our God is a God who always tries, not to punish, but to rehabilitate sinners, so that we may be made whole and experience inner peace and harmony.

Today's liturgy celebrates the fact of God's forgiveness.

In the first reading, David's sincere repentance for his sins of murder, adultery and deceit is met by God's gracious and loving pardon.

Today's Psalm (51) has been regarded as David's prayer of repentance. It includes an acknowledgment that the injustice done against another is a sin against God himself: "having sinned against none other than You." St. Paul, in the second reading, reminds us that it is by faith in Jesus that we are saved.

He says that it is the realization that Christ died for us and lives in us that should bring us to true repentance, leading to renewed life in Christ.

Paul suggests that the experience of forgiveness is made available to all sinners through the saving cross of Jesus. Presenting the true repentance and conversion of a public sinner, today's gospel invites us to real repentance.

Recently there has been so much in the news about sexual harassment in the military.

It is often said that Luke's Gospel is a gospel of women and the poor. This weekend's story of the woman who comes to anoint the feet of Jesus at the Pharisee's house is just one example of why Luke's Gospel is characterized in this way. *The Pharisee has a particular view of what kind of woman this is.

He is unable to see her for anything other than what was her past behavior. On the other hand, Jesus accepts her for who she is in the moment, a daughter of God seeking forgiveness.

We should not lose sight of the fact that it was the men who took advantage of this woman in the culture of the time. As so often happens, the impoverished are driven to do what they must to survive.

While this woman was considered a sinner, the men who took advantage of her were guilty as well.

In the Gospel, Jesus invites Simon the Pharisee, to take another look at the situation, something that each of us may also want to do in our own relationships.

The Gospel provokes us to consider the ways that we treat other people and to look in depth at how we respect one another.

The issues of sexual assault, human trafficking, racism, bullying, hatred of others, or just plain disrespect are rooted in a lack of appreciation of the human dignity of the other person.

It is a kind of selfishness that places ourselves above all others, something that Jesus condemns in the Gospel.

For God's love to truly be spread on this earth we have to start with ourselves and the way that we treat those whom we come into contact with every day.

Do we love them as we love ourselves?

jjl

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