Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
LUKE 7:36-50
Love Opens the Door to Forgiveness

Today’s Gospel (Luke 7:36–50) unfolds like a painting, so vivid that one can almost see the colours and gestures. The scene takes place in the courtyard of Simon the Pharisee, where Jesus is reclining at table. According to custom, a guest of honour should have been greeted with a kiss of peace, his feet washed with water, and his head anointed with perfume. Yet Simon, the host, offers none of these courtesies. Jesus is treated with polite contempt, invited perhaps out of curiosity, but not out of love.

Then enters a woman, known by everyone as a sinner. She brings nothing but her tears and her alabaster flask. In a gesture of deep humility, she wets the feet of Jesus with her tears, dries them with her unbound hair, and anoints them with perfume. She breaks every social convention, forgetting everyone except Jesus. And in her vulnerability, she discovers mercy.

Here we see two hearts contrasted: Simon’s self-sufficient heart, and the woman’s heart, open in need. Simon feels no need, and so he shows no love, and he receives no forgiveness. The woman, aware of her brokenness, pours out her love, and in return, she receives forgiveness and peace.

This is the paradox of our faith: the one who thinks himself righteous closes the door to God’s mercy, while the one who knows her need opens herself to His love. The saints remind us of this truth—Paul calls himself the “foremost of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15), Francis of Assisi confessed to being the most wretched. The closer they drew to God, the more they recognised their need for mercy.

Let us learn from this woman of the Gospel: to kneel before Jesus with all our tears, to let go of our pride, and to allow His forgiveness to restore us. For God is love, and love’s greatest glory is to be needed.

© Claretian Publications, Hong Kong, China
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025