Joe was a college student who, every day, passed by a bag lady as she pushed a shopping cart. But one day Joe got stopped in traffic and decided to pull into a gas station. The lady smiled at him and came up beside his car pushing her cart full of collected treasures. Some people stared, with the look that said, “What’s that college kid doing with that bag lady?” As Joe filled his gas tank, he asked her name and she told him it was Wilhelmina. She told him her sad story and how she was all alone in the world.
As Joe finished pumping his gas and prepared to leave, he started his engine, rolled his window down, and waved goodbye. However, soft jazz from his radio filled the air. Wilhelmina said, “Oh, I like this music – let’s dance!” Joe was taken aback at first, but then he turned his music up, opened the car windows, and got out of his car. Wilhelmina reached for Joe’s hand and the two touched. Her skin was rough to the touch, but her face brightened with a smile as she and Joe danced and he turned her around a time or two.
Just then a police officer pulled into the parking lot and looked hard at the two with an expression that said, “what the___”
Wilhelmina clung to Joe’s arm and gave the cop a look that said, “We’re together.” Joe nodded and said, “It’s okay. She’s with me.”
The cop just looked at Joe and shook his head in disbelief that this college kid would even touch Wilhelmina. He drove away shaking his head at Joe’s poor judgment.
*****
Joe is a lot like Jesus. Jesus touched all the wrong people. And he allowed the wrong people to touch him. Which brings us to another woman in today’s gospel.
Jesus turns to Simon the Pharisee and asks: “Do you see this woman?” Do you see this woman? * Simon doesn’t see her, or at least does not see her as a real human being, worthy of redemption. And he never answers the question. He could only see outward appearances, he could only see rules and laws that had been broken. And he could not see the woman.
There are still many who only follow the Commandments and the rules of the Church out of a fear of God, rather than trusting in God and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us love others with whom we come face to face.
You see, forgiveness and love weren’t even on Simon the Pharisee’s mind. His religion was about being right, and judging others as either sinful or righteous. The law for the Jewish Pharisees was very, very strict. However, the problem with the Pharisees was that they only followed the letter of the law and forgot the purpose behind the law.
The Pharisees truly thought they were honoring God by their strict rules yet it made life very uncomfortable and difficult for most people, that many people gave up trying. In the Pharisee’s world, that there were only two types of people: the good and the bad.
Do we see this woman?
What we have here is a woman who recognized the presence of God’s love poured out in Jesus. She forgot all the rules of respectable society because she only knew one thing: Jesus. She completely abandoned herself to Divine Providence and gave all she could, her tears, her kisses, her hair, and her costly perfume because Jesus was present to her.
The problem with Simon is that he had already judged this woman as sinful – forever a sinner.
Yet her sin is no longer important – what is important is that she is a forgiven and changed woman! In fact, Jesus does not mention the woman’s sin at all, but instead proclaims her acts of kindness and hospitality as signs of her great love!
Jesus chastises Simon the Pharisee for his sins of omission, and loving too little! His failure to exercise hospitality, failure to tend to the needs of others, and failure to recognize the dignity of even the most sinful. Simon loved too little.
So what is the first thing we see in others?
Haven’t we all been like the Pharisees by keeping certain people in categories or even considering others as hopeless or unredeemable?
How do we see others? What about the poor person at the Dollar General Store we think is on meth? What about that nasty mouthed person at the gas station or the ball field? What about that inept cashier or incompetent waiter or waitress? ……….. You know what I’m talking about.
This is a difficulty for many of us. Indeed it is a cross. We have to die to our neat and orderly worlds where we put people in categories; we must crucify all within us that would seek to diminish or deny the human dignity of even one person, regardless whether he or she is a sinner or not.
Being a Christian is not about trying to live only by the law. Being a legalist can’t give you life. If one could achieve righteousness by following the law, then Jesus’ mission was meaningless. We are called to relationship with Christ and others.
With the woman, Jesus breaks the law and reaches out and touches the "untouchable." We too are called to break out of the neat little boxes society has created for us to live in. The woman only saw Jesus because she knew she was loved and forgiven by Him.
Therefore, no matter how difficult or different others may be, may we see them in our midst as calling us to mercy and compassion; not running from them or casting stones at them, but allowing them to help us be witnesses of Christ’s unconditional love.
May we have the courage to love as Jesus loved and the faith to always give thanks to God for his mercy.
Just like Joe and Wilhelmina, the people in my story, Wilhelmina saw Joe and found in him a friend. Joe in turn saw Wilhelmina as a person and stopped worrying about what others might think and became so forgetful of himself that he was willing to dance with her in public – even in the presence of a police officer who likely knew Wilhelmina’s past and her sins.
As Joe reached out to Wilhelmina, Jesus reaches out to those from whom all others draw back. Jesus showed us that Christianity is about reaching out to the untouchables so that God’s love will be real to those most in need of His mercy!
Joe was changed that day. On his drive to school, he knew in his heart that Wilhelmina was more than just a bag lady with lots of baggage – but a human being, a person, who longed to love and be loved.
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