1 Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Sometimes I wonder if we truly give the appropriate amount of contemplation to the reality of the forgiveness of sins. Do we recognize the profundity of that reality? Do we recognize the generosity of our God who so readily forgives us of our sins? To be honest I don t think that we do. I think part of the reason why this is so is that there is a numbness to the damaging effects of sin, to the seriousness of sin, and sometimes even the existence of sin. We convince ourselves that it s not that bad, I m not hurting anybody, is this even really that big of a deal? Brothers and sisters, if this casual attitude towards sin is allowed to permeate the spiritual life, if the seriousness of sin is not seriously considered, then the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sins becomes far less impressive but what s far more dangerous is that the mercy of God is no longer something that we seek out because we have convinced ourselves that we don t really need it. Of course this is just one side. There are others. We can say to ourselves that we are ready, willing, and able to receive mercy from God for ourselves, but are we ready, willing, and able to accept the mercy of God for others? When we have been wronged, hurt, damaged, betrayed, or injured by others, by friends, by family, by neighbors, by enemies
2 do we hope and pray that they find forgiveness from God, that they seek out God s mercy. Do we see people in the world doing terrible things to others and rejoice that we have a God who is so willing to forgive? Do we stand in awe of the mercy of God that shatters our limited expectations of what forgiveness truly is? Can we allow for a mercy that doesn t define people because of what they have done? Can we even begin to imagine the streets of heaven lined with abortionists and terrorists? Can we envision the great multitude of heaven made up of people like Adam Lanza who murdered his way through Sandy Hook Elementary School? Or do we, like Simon, think to ourselves does Jesus even know, does He know what kind of person this is, does he know what they ve done, does he know that they are a sinner? If this man were a prophet, if this Jesus is who he says he is, then he should know, and if He does, than there is no way he would grant this person mercy because they don t deserve it. Who says we deserve it? Why are we more deserving of God s mercy than anyone else? Because my sins aren t as bad as theirs are. Because I think I m a good person. Because I m religious. Because I pray. Because I tithe. Because of any number of reasons I come up with to convince myself that I am better than you, and I deserve this mercy and you don t
3 Brothers and sisters, if we cannot accept that the mercy of God is for everyone, if we presume to instruct God on what he can and cannot do with his mercy, than we cannot call ourselves Christians. If we limit the mercy of God for others than we limit it for ourselves. The seventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew tells us that the judgement we pronounce will be the same judgment passed on us and the measure you give will be the measure you get. And finally There are those who are ashamed to ask God for his mercy. There are those who believe that they have gone too far. They don t believe that they can ask God for his mercy. They think to themselves, my sins are too great. My offenses are too numerous to be counted. How dare I approach the merciful throne of Christ? And while this thinking may appear to contain some hints of humility, in fact the very opposite is true. It is pride pure and simple. My sins can t be forgiven. Yes they can of course they can In fact, scripture tells us that the only unforgivable sin is to think that our sins can t be forgiven. This is despair at its lowest levels. And it is tragic. But make no mistake, this level of despair is an insult to the cross of Christ. And it is an insult to Him who offers his mercy to us so readily. These three approaches, these three modes of understanding God s mercy really represent the edges, the extreme ways of contemplating God s mercy.
4 Most of us move about somewhere in between. But I would be willing to bet that all of us, from time to time, have also flirted with some of these edges. Look We are all of us sinners. Varying in severity, differing in degree, but sinners we are none the less. And the importance of recognizing this is not so that we feel bad about ourselves, it s so that we can begin to be healed which is what God desperately wants for us. In his book entitled, The Lord, Romano Guardini said that before all else, we must learn that we are sinners; that we must take stock of what we have become through sin, and then call out to God that we may be forgiven. And the woman in the gospel today is the perfect example of this reality. She knew she was a sinner but that didn t stop her. She didn t care what others might think, she didn t care what others knew about her, she learned that Jesus was at table in the house of the Pharisee and she went to find him because she thought Maybe this man might be able to help me. Because I am tired. I am tired of carrying these burdens around. I can t do this anymore and I don t want to do this anymore. And so she went. She went to Christ with a broken heart and left with peace. That happened to her. It was real. Her life was irrevocably changed for eternity. What if she had decided to stay home to stay away?
5 Seek the Lord and you will find him. Ask him for his mercy and he will grant it. Throw yourself down in humble submission at the feet of our Blessed Lord, and he will raise you up as a new creation in Himself and it will no longer be you who lives but Christ who lives in you.