Do You See This Woman? Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

First let me wish a happy Father’s Day to all the dads here today; we remember in our prayers those fathers who are deployed overseas, and we also remember and pray for the souls of those fathers who have passed away, especially in the last year.

For those that are here, I hope that you and your families have a great weekend and really get to celebrate.

That’s one thing that St. Peter Parish is really good at–celebrating. Just a few days ago, an amazing team of parishioners, school parents, and students put on a luncheon for the All Saints teachers and staff that rivaled any first class restaurant I’ve ever been to. We ate on fine china, we were served by young student waiters and waitresses, and the food was outstanding.

Now, in Jesus’ time, if you really wanted to greet your guests with utmost courtesy and gratitude, you would provide water for dusty feet, oil for anointing hair, and kisses on the cheek; in our culture, we do it a little differently: we teachers were greeted with a tunnel of students clapping and giving high fives as we entered the parish hall. We felt like we had just won a soccer game.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like that luncheon. Thank you to those of you who helped organize it and put it on.

From lunches like that to events like the Italian Dinner Dance, the Wine and Cheese Social, or the Knights of Columbus Sunday breakfasts, our community really knows how to put on a meal.

A meal is at the center of today’s gospel.

Jesus had probably just preached a sermon that had impressed the crowd, and it was common for well-to-do people in the community to ask prominent speakers to dinner. Luke’s gospel mentions several dinners like this, in which a Pharisee invites Jesus to eat with him.

These kinds of dinners were a bit more formal than most, and they were somewhat open events, with other people dropping by to listen in.

This particular dinner was organized by a Pharisee named Simon, who had gathered a few friends to hear what else Jesus had to say. Simon is not one of those Pharisees who is trying to trap Jesus, but he’s not a disciple, either.

He’s not really sure what to make of Jesus, so he doesn’t show him any extra courtesy. He doesn’t anoint his head with oil, give him a kiss of peace, or give him water for his dusty feet. But this preacher could be a prophet, so he invites him to his house as a way to keep up appearances in front of his friends.

The drama begins when an uninvited and unwelcome guest makes her appearance.

This woman–known publicly to be a sinner–has heard that Jesus is at the table of Simon the Pharisee. She was most likely one of the people who had heard Jesus speak recently, and she heard his message of God’s mercy and forgiveness. She has come to show her gratitude and love by bringing probably the only thing of value she owns, an alabaster flask of ointment for his feet.

Everyone recognizes her, and everyone knows her history. But she doesn’t let her embarrassment stop her.

She’s focused on Jesus.

He’s reclining on the floor to eat, leaning on his left arm next to the low table, with his legs stretched out beside him, the way people would usually eat at these kinds of more formal dinners.

As she approaches his feet to anoint them she begins to cry. She weeps so much, that her tears bathe the feet of Jesus.

She’s so overcome with gratitude toward Jesus that she momentarily forgets where she is and does something shocking. In the presence of the other guests, most of them men, she disgraces herself by unbinding her hair to wipe the tears from his feet. She then kisses them, and anoints them with the ointment.

Her entire being is focused on Jesus. She doesn’t care about the others present, she doesn’t care about how all this looks; she only cares about being grateful to the one who has forgiven her.

It’s at this point that Simon seems to have made up his mind about his guest. Simon had invited Jesus to his house on the chance that he was a prophet, but now he dismisses that, since a prophet would never have let a woman like that touch him in such a way.

But the irony is that Jesus knows exactly what kind of woman is touching him. And he knows exactly what kind of man has invited him to dinner. And Jesus has something to say about that to Simon.

He tells a parable about two people who were in debt, and it’s clear that the one who owed 500 days’ wages would be much more grateful than the one who only owed fifty.

But Simon answers carefully, almost reluctantly. “I suppose it was the man whose larger debt was forgiven.” Suppose? Of course it’s the one with the larger debt!

But Simon is a cautious man, a lukewarm man. He invites the preacher to dinner, but he doesn’t offer him full courtesy. He’s not “all in,” like the woman.

This is a scene of contrasts–a contrast between the lukewarm caution of Simon and the unbridled gratitude of the woman.

Jesus holds up this sinful woman as an icon of discipleship. “Do you see this woman?” he asks. When we picture her in our mind, crying at the feet of Jesus, kissing and anointing his feet, we are not to see in her a beggar trying to earn mercy and forgiveness.

Her debt has already been forgiven. She’s expressing her gratitude in a most personal and emotional way.

Simon’s difficulty is that he doesn’t even consider that he has a debt. Or if he does, he considers it too small to carry on like she does.

And now the question comes to us. We have to decide: Are we going to remain like Simon, unwilling to acknowledge our own sins, worried more about the opinions of others and how our faith might look?

Or are we going to be like the sinful woman and take our faith to heart, letting our emotions show, unbinding our hair and kissing Jesus’ feet?

We have come to this banquet, the table of the Eucharist. The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.” We come here not to crawl on the floor before God and beg for mercy, but to kiss His feet in gratitude for the mercy and forgiveness he has already bestowed on us.

How grateful are we at this banquet of thanksgiving? So grateful that we sing at the top of our lungs, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of hosts!”? So grateful that we end the prayer of consecration with a great “AMEN”?

The depth of our gratitude and love depends first on realizing how much we are in debt to God. In today’s first reading, King David has forgotten his debt, and God has to remind him: “I anointed you King of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord’s house…I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.”

What would God count up for us? “I bring the warm weather in the summer. I provide lakes on which to build cabins. I make the school year only nine months long. I give you baseball, fishing, books, music, airplanes, smart phones, cars, golf.”

On this Father’s Day, God says, “I have given you your father.”

And at this Mass God says, “I gather a holy people. I sacrificed my only son for you.”

We don’t deserve any of this. It is all grace, all mercy. Simon was too concerned with purity laws and appearances to see it. What’s keeping us from seeing it?

And if we do see it, let’s celebrate it! Let’s make it a point this summer to gather with God’s people for Eucharist, wherever our vacations may take us. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, who cares who sees us, or what they think of us?

And finally, in our gratefulness to God, there is one more way we can be like the woman who comes to anoint Jesus. In her gratitude, her first thought was to serve Christ.

In our gratitude, we can serve the Body of Christ among us. St. Ambrose once wrote, “The Church washes the feet of Christ, wipes them with her hair, anoints them with oil, and pours ointment on them. She not only cares for the wounded and caresses the weary, but she also moistens them with the sweet perfume of grace.”

Who are the wounded and weary in our life that need our care? It’s our task as disciples to seek them out and minister to them, even if it feels embarrassing, awkward, or uncomfortable.

This is the gift of the woman at the dinner. She is our icon of the Good News today. In her grateful and unselfconscious actions, she shows us how to be disciples of gratitude and service. Jesus asks us, “Do you see this woman?”

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