[__01__]
On certain formal occasions, the entrance – and the timing of one’s
entrance – is very important.
This would include --
Commencement, Graduations, Weddings.
We even attend rehearsals,
striving for punctuality. We try not to keep others waiting.
A delay could mean
trouble.
Or – is it Good News
to be delayed ?
[__02__] From the Gospel this Sunday, we read that
Simon the Pharisee has invited Jesus, our
Savior, to dinner at a specific time and place.
Jesus would have been
the main guest – the guest of honor – and could not have been late. The
celebration starts after his arrival.
Then, an unexpected
guest – a woman known publicly for his sinful past – arrives.
If this were purely a
report about the notable people of Jerusalem, one in which guest are
photographed on red carpets arriving at mansion or theatre, we might then say
the woman is fashionably late, intentionally delayed to make an impression.
But there are no
paparazzi. And, this is not exactly Jay Gatsby’s mansion.
Is it Good News to be
delayed?
[__03__] For Simon the Pharisee, No, it is not Good
News.
Simon the Pharisee
believed this woman should have repented long ago, or perhaps should never have
fallen into sin in the first place.
This was no joyous
reunion for the guest stuck in bridge traffic.
Simon’s perception
leads to the prophecy of Jesus, the interpretation of Simon’s thoughts by our
Lord …
Jesus reads Simon’s
thoughts and reveals them through the parable about 2 persons in debt for
different amounts, one with a very large balance … the other a very small
balance.
One scholar
observes: “While Simon silently condemns
Jesus for not divining the character of the woman, Jesus proves himself a
prophet by reading the secret thoughts of Simon [the Pharisee].”[1]
[__04__] Is
it Good News to be delayed?
For Jesus, for you for
me, the delay is Good News.
Our Savior offers us
the sacraments and the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, also for our
debts, our sins.
The Lord also offers
us this sacrament for our delay tactics, knowing that we might take a while to
come around to confession.
[__05__]
Isn’t this true in our relationships with
others? For example, are we not also striving to grow in forgiveness and mercy
towards others?
We
may striving to forgive the faults of family members, of a spouse, a friend, a
child, a friend.
Not
everyone will ask forgiveness according to our screen of arrival / and /
departures. There may be air-traffic, bridge, or tunnel delays.
In
some cases, we are also called to forgive the faults unknown to the person
committing them. This is a further delay.
And,
sometimes, it is just as difficult – or more difficult – to accept the
expression of contrition – to accept an apology – than to deliver an apology.
[__06__] On this Father’s Day, we can also
give thanks – in prayer or in person – for gift
of our fathers, for their mercy, forgiveness, for their efforts to
understand us, especially when we were delayed – fashionably nor unfashionably.
[__07__] In this
Gospel, we are reminded that the Lord waits and endures our delay.
The
delay is Good News, with our freedom is all the greater, and the celebration
and feast at the table all the stronger, receiving his forgiveness and
invitation to go in peace.
[1]
Jerome Biblical Commentary,
44:76, “Luke 7:36-50, The Penitent
Woman”. Regarding Luke 7:40, the commentator writes: “While Simon silently
condemns Jesus for not divining the character of the woman,Jesus proves himself
a prophet by reading the secret thoughts of Simon [the Pharisee].”
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