Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - «'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love» (Lk 7, 44-47).
Last Sunday we meditated on these words which Jesus said to a public sinner who became a luminous icon of authentic conversion. To invite Jesus into our homes, that is into our lives, like Simon the Pharisee is the first, but not the only step to conversion. Simon invited the Lord to supper but although he was next to the Lord his heart from far from Him. This was why the intimate fibres of his soul were hesitant, uncertain whether to open to the Other or not!
Jesus says to Simon and he says to us “you see this woman?”, as if to say: learn from her! “You gave me no water… she instead… you gave me no kiss, she instead… you did not anoint my head, she instead… For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love!” This marvellous catechesis on the necessity to “show much love”, should be engraved on our hearts that we may truly encounter the Lord; authentic conversion always means leaving something, losing ourselves, our love of self, to enter into the life of God!
How often we are in danger of being like Simon “next” to Jesus perhaps in the celebration of Mass or in a prayer group or at instruction, but without letting ourselves be penetrated by His Presence, without letting our heart abandon itself to His Heart always open for us. We can be experts in things of Christ, doctrine, theology, catechesis, spirituality … but being enamoured of Christ is something quite different …
Jesus needs “apostles”, men and women who have the courage and faith to deny themselves, lose their way of being to acquire gradually a new way of being in Christ.
When the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI went to Assisi for the 8th centenary of the conversion of Francis he spoke about that saintly man as “one enamoured of Christ”, underlining the necessity for us also to reach, by means of a progressive “path of conversion”, intense communion of love with God the bearer of incomparable joy and peace.
The Pope speaking to young people said that conversion consists essentially of this meeting with Jesus: “yes, dear young people: we must let Christ come to meet us! We must trust Him, we must listen to his Word... we come to Assisi to learn from Saint Francis the secret of how to recognise Jesus and experience His presence. This is what Francis felt for Jesus according to his first biographer: ‘He carried Jesus in his heart, Jesus on his lips, Jesus in his ears, Jesus in his eyes, Jesus in his hands, Jesus in every other part of his body… Indeed many times while travelling as he meditated or sung about Jesus he would forget that he was on a journey and would stop and call all the creatures to praise Jesus (1 Cel II, 9, 115: FF 115)” (Benedict XVI, meeting with young people in Assisi, 17 June 2007).
The Blessed Virgin Mary Maria teaches us that to let ourselves be captured by Christ we must make him a gift of our life, saying every day “here I am”. Only in this way the Lord will take our lives in His hands, make it His, straightening all distortions, healing rebel wills, shaping intentions and purifying sentiments, leading us to savour a new life, the life of the spirit! The path is certainly arduous as the Pope says but it is worth it if the result is this life in the spirit which is so much better than the first in which we were content to serve the servant (the world) rather than the Master (Dio): “why are you content with serving men when God is ready to take you into his house at his regal service?” (Benedict XVI, meeting with young people in Assisi, 17 June 2007). (Agenzia Fides 20/6/2007; righe 51, parole 753)
