First Reading: 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13 Responsorial: Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11 Second Reading: Galatians 2:16, 19-21 Gospel passage: Luke 7:36 – 8:3 (or 7:36-50)
Teller of Hearts by Msgr. Richard Henning
The figure of David looms large in the history of Israel. His reign is remembered as the Golden Age of Israel when the borders, glory, and influence of the Kingdom reached their greatest extent. The scriptural record relates David’s courage, cleverness, his prowess in battle, and the magnetism of his personality. Above all, the scriptures focus on David’s loyalty to the Lord Who has raised David from obscurity to greatness. But even as we see David’s greatness, we see his flaws - the most obvious being his involvement with Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. In that sorry tale, David did more than lust after another man’s wife, he abused the sacred trust given to him as the anointed king, forgetting that his place upon the throne was given to him by the Lord.
The same David who sang his heart to the Lord in Psalms forgot that his heart was never hidden from the One Who sees all truth. In the passage that we hear from Second Samuel, the Prophet Nathan brings the devastating reminder that David’s great sin cannot be denied or hidden. Nathan reminds David that he is a creature of the Most High – his kingship is not his own, but a gift of the Lord. As Nathan announces the consequences of this great sin, David repents. He has admitted the truth that he is not the great power or the last word. The Lord reads David’s heart, and the judgment is moderated by a note of mercy.
In the second reading, we hear from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul had baptized the Galatians into the faith without requiring them to become Jewish in cultural or ritual terms. It appears that later missionaries told the community that their relationship to God was inadequate, and that they would have to keep Jewish cultural and ritual requirements such as circumcision and food rules. Perhaps out of misplaced zeal, these fervent converts then accepted these burdens. Paul wrote to refute the claims of those other missionaries, and to rebuke and correct the Galatians for giving in to such claims. For Paul, their actions refute the most fundamental of his teachings – that of the grace of God at work in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Paul had taught them the marvelous news that God had given to human beings, Jew and Gentile, the reconciliation and restoration that people could not achieve or merit by their own power. In taking a step backwards into the observance of ritual prescriptions the Galatians were not making their practice of the faith more rigorous, they were denying that Christ had truly redeemed them. In this passage, Paul comes to the heart of the matter and expresses it in deeply personal terms. He has had the extraordinary experience of being transformed by his encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus. Paul had been so wrong and was so changed. That deep relationship, his union with the Lord Jesus, is the source of all that he does and says. He lives now by that grace that has saved him, and he summons the Galatians to live by that same grace and that grace alone.
The story of the sinful woman in Luke is a crucial passage for understanding Luke’s perspective. As is the case in passages like the thief on the cross or the healing of the paralytic or the repentance of Peter in the courtyard, we see that the presence of the Lord Jesus brings new possibilities of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation. In this passage, the woman is contrasted with Simon the Pharisee. The woman knows her need for forgiveness. She does not hide her sins or her desperation but surrenders herself to the judgment and mercy of the Lord. Her tender care of the Lord is moving, but it is not what saves her. Jesus tells her that her “faith” has saved her. In effect, it is her relationship to Him that liberates and delivers her. Simon, rather than acknowledging his sin or submitting himself to judgment decides to pass judgment on the Lord Jesus. And so Jesus must reveal the truth of Simon’s own heart to him. Even as Jesus rebukes Simon, there is an element of invitation. It is not too late to hear the truth and respond as the woman has with faith and love.
God knows our hearts. There is no sin, no flaw hidden from His sight. But we need not fear the telling of our hearts, for it is a tale of redemption and mercy. When we open ourselves to the truth of our need, the Lord gives us the grace of repentance, the gift of forgiveness, and the promise of salvation.
