11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

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

            “Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.”  This refrain for the responsorial psalm (Psalm 32) captures the theme of this Sunday’s liturgy.  David, Paul, and the sinful woman in Luke all come to forgiveness through first admitting their sin.  Let us humbly follow their example and come to know the peace of the Lord’s forgiving love. 

            Despite the largely favorable picture of David in the story of his rise from a shepherd boy to becoming king of both Judah and Israel (1 Samuel 16 -2 Samuel 7), the last chapters of David’s reign chronicle his and Israel’s nearly tragic degeneration because of his sins (2 Samuel 11-20; 1 Kings 1-2).   After receiving from the prophet Nathan the glorious promise that his dynasty would last forever (2 Samuel 7), David, in typical despotic fashion, commits adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrates the murder of her husband Uriah during a war with the Ammonites (2 Samuel 11).  The Lord sends Nathan to confront David with his sins in the unforgettable parable of the ewe lamb in response to which the king condemns himself (see 1 Samuel 12:1-6).  Our reading begins with Nathan’s judgment oracle which first recalls the Lord’s gracious guidance of David. “Thus says the Lord God of Israel ‘I anointed you king of Israel.  I rescued you from the hand of Saul.  I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own.  I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.  And if this were not enough,  I could count up for you still more.”  This past favor makes David’s ruthless actions all the more reprehensible.  “Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight?  You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword;  you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.”

            David’s punishment will fit his crime.  Nathan announces that “the sword shall never depart from your house.”  To his great credit David admits his sin without excuse: “I have sinned against the Lord,” and Nathan in turn assures him of the Lord’s forgiveness: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”  But, although David’s life is spared, the son Bathsheba has conceived will die, and the sword will nearly destroy the house of the king who displays a fatal weakness for indulging his sons.  The last chapters of David’s reign are marked by the death of three more of his sons as the royal family is ravaged by incest, fratricide, attempted patricide, and civil war (2 Samuel 13-20; 1 Kings 1-2).  In the midst of this ordeal, David is forced to abandon the city of Jerusalem as a chastened and penitent sinner (see 2 Samuel 15-16) and return only after his son Absalom has died (2 Samuel 17-20).

            The Epistle is taken from the conclusion of Paul’s defense of his apostolic credentials at the beginning of Galatians (Gal 1:10-2:21).  Paul is recounting an unpleasant incident at Antioch in which he chided Cephas (Peter) for being two-faced about the obligatory character of the Jewish dietary laws (2:11-14).  Paul is convinced that one must choose between justification through observance of the Torah or through belief in the saving death of Christ. The section ends with Paul’s statement of his gospel.  The “we” throughout refers to Peter and Paul, Jews by birth, who are not justified by their observance of the works of the law, but by their faith in and identification with the crucified Christ whose death and resurrection has brought them forgiveness of sin and the grace of God.  “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me  and given himself up for me.  I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law,

then Christ died for nothing.”

            The Gospel reflects a favorite theme in Luke: self-righteous Pharisees and scholars of the Torah reject Jesus, while sinners believe in his message of forgiveness. Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to eat with him, but he is offended when the “prophet” allows an anonymous sinful woman to touch him with extravagant gestures of gratitude.  He says to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”  Jesus, knowing what is in Simon’s mind, answers by asking him to judge the parable of the two debtors which forces the Pharisee to admit that the one who is forgiven more will show greater love.  Jesus then goes on to contrast Simon’s failure to show the normal courtesies to him as a guest with the woman’s tender acts of gratitude for being forgiven her sins. “Do you see this woman?  When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment.  So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  The scene ends with the woman being sent on her way with the assurance, “Your sins are forgiven. . . .  Your faith has saved you; go in peace”.  Let us admit our sins, turn from them and be open to Jesus’ gift of peace.