11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

2^nd Samuel 12:7-10, 13 Galatians 2:16, 19-21 Luke 7:36 – 8:3

In Israel’s heroic-mythic history, King David succeeded in his endeavors by God’s favor and consistent intervention. But, in his successes he became more than a bit arrogant and overconfident, effectively forgetting God’s providence. The self-discipline he had invoked by which to survive, conquer or persuade his adversaries, failed him in his palace behavior. He abused his power and sometimes devastated the lives of others around him. In today’s first lesson, the great prophet Nathan announced to David the Divine disappointment in his behavior and catalogued a short list of his more serious sins. The narrative remembered David’s admission of guilt with a single sentence. In another single sentence, Nathan bestowed God’s forgiveness. This was not meant to be an historical verbatim, but rather a succinct and memorable narrative summary of a divine-human relationship drawn from the collective historical memory within ancient Judaism. Among numerous insights, this short story points out that even the most exemplary of the shepherd kings of Judaism was sinful. Another complements it: God was merciful and forgiving of the gravest of sins. Note in this text that David’s guilt was reduced to three most serious faults: ingratitude, adultery and murder. David’s profound thoughtlessness about having received the throne from God, his abuse of political power in his seduction of Bathsheba, and his arrangement for and coverup of the murder of her trusting husband, David’s loyal General, Uriah the Hittite – these were the most grievous of sins. Power corrupted God’s chosen one rather absolutely even in that era which would later become Israel’s nostalgic ideal. But, David admitted his sin. Would that other, powerful leaders of today’s government, business, religion and family, could recognize and admit their wrong-doings as smoothly and honorably as did David. Perhaps we need more like Nathan today, i.e., prophetic voices, adroit in recognizing and delivering criticisms effectively and constructively. Alas, both heroic and noble leaders, and wise and insightful prophets seem always in short supply. And when they do arise, even the society has trouble hearing them. Society itself in any age can be most ungrateful in it’s fickleness, collective ignorance, irrational fears and fundamental biases. Ours is no different.

The Gospel message demonstrated Jesus downplaying the societal presumption that sexual sins were and are of supreme importance. Sexual sins, and the stigma associated with them, were sins against ritual purity and societal order for the ancient Jews. Today sexual sins are violations of human dignity. Adultery deceives the profound trust of a marriage relationship, and fornication irresponsibly risks creating life itself along with unwise and unhappy lifetime relationships. But, as in the text from 2^nd Samuel, ingratitude is the first and greatest fault of all, for it subverts wisdom yielding an exaggerated focus entirely on one’s own self. Jesus’ parable-riddle to his Pharisaic audience – along with his comment that to have been forgiven much increased one’s capacity to love, while to have been forgiven little meant that one was likely to love less – was a great challenge to them to rethink on (repent from) their self-righteous assumptions and biases. The good shepherd who sought out the single lost sheep while leaving 99 other sheep in safety (see the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Year C) was a related parable. In fact, the Gospel kerygma (the preached Gospel message) promoted gratitude in such a manner as to make thankfulness the primary motive for love, forgiveness, reconciliation, sharing, and all the other mutual-care virtues for which Christians ought to be known. It is precisely because God has loved us first that we are capable to respond in gratitude. Eucharist, itself a Greek word the root of which means “thanksgiving,” reveals the necessity of gratitude in Gospel fellowship, worship, and sanctity. Healthy, adult faith demands that the foundation of the Gospel message be an active engagement in personal and communal gratitude. Without gratitude, one cannot be Christian. To practice Christian prayer, fellowship or morality without gratitude quickly reduces the Gospel effort to pretense, to thoughtless superstition and magic.

The unnamed woman in the Gospel narrative, a public sinner, was ultimately forgiven by Jesus to the irritation and scandal of others at table. This whole interplay among Jesus and the woman on the one hand, and the dinner’s host and audience on the other, was a seductive trap laid for those others in their self-righteousness. It serves as an example of how not to be (i.e., watching others in hope of finding fault). Simply to have avoided sins, especially the culturally more serious ones, was then and is today, only minimally virtuous and sometimes completely without virtue. Rather, to have embarked on a life of deliberate gratitude out of a personal awareness of having been forgiven much, this life-style lives the Gospel message as fully as possible. Ultimately, the opinions of the self-righteous are of little lasting value. Self-righteous people tend to be shallow and fickle. The love that comes from true gratitude is profound and everlasting. People have been known to sacrifice their lives out of gratitude. Self-righteousness smugness boasts only cheap courage and then only in very safe situations. The self-righteous are moral cowards. The thankful are brave, loving and just.

Notice, too, that Jesus and the Twelve kept company with Mary Magdalene “from whom seven demons had gone out.” Her gratitude for being loved by Jesus made her a faithful follower, and ultimately, the first to witness to his Resurrection. Mary and a party of other women “provided for them (i.e., Jesus and the Twelve) out of their resources.” They put their resources (money, efforts, attention, fellowship) where their gratitude was. They did not merely donate minimally; they gave of their substance. Cheap people give minimally. One cannot be both cheap and thankful (“full of thanks”) at the same time.

Paul, a religious extremist until his profound encounter with the Risen Christ, had embraced the Torah, the Law of Moses, with all his mind and heart. He had been enthusiastically faithful to it. But one of the great insights given him when he received God’s Holy Spirit was that even extreme fidelity to the Torah in minute detail could not and would not really make one worthy of God’s approval. Rather, it was only in embracing the whole spirit of the Gospel message and in living for others as Christ had lived that made the difference. Religious practice can (and often has and still does) very easily become an automatic cultural behavior rather than conscious religious experience. When this occurs, we risk “practicing” the religious faith by doing the things expected by others in that faith who render important social approval or disapproval. This is not good enough from Paul’s perspective in Galatians. He worked hard to break through the superficial observance of his and their Jewish faith (however inadvertent it was), in order to increase the believers’ awareness of the powerfully profound love and affection God was offering to them. He was trying to let them experience gratitude, that primary motive for the best faith. A criticism leveled at all religious groups is frequently the lack of depth and connectedness among some of it’s leaders and members. When leaders disconnect from the messiness of real, day-to-day life and love, they risk becoming very superficial and ultimately self-righteous. Such attitudes impede practical gratitude, demean those engaged in life’s complexities, and often subvert the very Gospel they originally embraced. To have been forgiven much . . . . Remember that Paul was forgiven even his murderous persecution of the early Church’s disciples.

How much have I been forgiven? What difference has it made? About what do I still stand in need of repentance and forgiveness? Do I provide for Jesus and his disciples out of my own resources? Have I forgiven much in turn? How can I tell?

Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again! Deo gratias!