You Are Being Listened To
Pastor’s Column
11th Sunday Ordinary Time
June 16, 2013
This has been an interesting week in the news, hasn’t it? Apparently there has been more data collection in this country than many of us were aware of until this week. Well, regardless of how we individually feel about this national issue, it is a very interesting revelation in the light of the gospel, because this is precisely what Jesus promises us is going on right now in the spiritual world – recording and videotaping, watching and promising to play back for us and everyone else absolutely all we are doing now, what we have done in the past and what we will do in the future!
Think about it for a minute: what did Christ really say about this? “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be made known (Mt 10:26).” Or: “By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned (Mt 12:37).” And how about this one from Revelation: “And the book of life was opened, and other books were opened which recorded what the dead have done with their lives, by which they were judged (Rev. 20:12).”
This world is set up in such a way as there is absolutely no right to privacy when it comes to God. As a matter of fact, Christ also has assured us that not only is everything recorded and listened to, (and, in fact, we are being watched remotely right now by God), that, in fact, everyone in heaven who is interested can see us, and the entire movie of our lives can be played for everyone. How about that? What can we do about this? We can go to confession! The only people who get caught like this are the ones who think they can get away with something, and ultimately, we can’t.
In this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 7: 36-8:3), a woman known as a notorious sinner crashes a dinner party given by a self-righteous Pharisee (who sees only a sinner when he looks at her), and immediately begins to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. Then she breaks a very expensive jar of oil all over his feet! But what the Pharisee didn’t know was that Jesus had forgiven this woman’s many sins. And she was very grateful.
The first detail to note is that she “let her hair down.” In the culture of the times, this meant she was a person of ill-repute. In other words, she acknowledged her sins before God. She knew her sins and she knew Jesus had forgiven her. And she showed her repentance by being willing to be humiliated, if necessary, to show her gratitude to Jesus. When was the last time you were this grateful for being forgiven by Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
This very scene often plays out in our own reconciliation room. How many times I have seen people leaving the confessional in tears, because they were so grateful to be forgiven! What this sinful woman had that the self-righteous Pharisee did not was that she was deeply aware of her sins and was willing to come forward to be forgiven.
Father Gary