Second Sunday of Apostles - Holy Trinity

Sunday Gospel and Message

The Pardon of the Sinful Woman (Luke 7:36-50)

A Pharisee invited him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said 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 said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “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; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Jesus knew what people thought in those days and he knows what we think today. The Pharisee thought that Jesus did not know that the woman mentioned in today’s gospel, was a sinner and that he was, for that reason, not a prophet.           
 
The pharisee questions the knowledge and authority of Jesus, while the woman accepts Jesus as the Savior and receives forgiveness and peace. The pharisee tries to find fault with Jesus, while the woman finds her own faults.                     

Where are we in our relationship with Jesus?
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Two secretaries were taking a tea break when they began to talk about their respective churches. "I never knew you went to church," said the first one. "I'll bet you twenty dollars you can't even recite the Lord's prayer."

"Oh yes, I CAN," said the second.

"Well, then, let's HEAR it," said the first.

The second one began, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep..."

The first secretary listened with astonishment. "Wow!" she said. "Here's your twenty dollars. I sure didn't think you knew it!"
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The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of faith in Christianity understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct persons in one God sharing the same divine nature.   St. Augustine tried to explain it thus: Father is the eternal lover and His everlasting love is the Son. Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. We believe in this mystery because Jesus taught it clearly, the evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it and the Council of Nicea and Constantinople defined it as dogma of Christian faith.

There is a very old and much repeated story about St. Augustine, one of the intellectual giants of the Church.  He was walking by the seashore one day, attempting to conceive of an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.  As he walked along, he saw a small boy on the beach, pouring seawater with a shell into a small hole in the sand.  "What are you doing, my child?" asked Augustine.  "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole," the boy answered with an innocent smile.  "But that is impossible, my dear child,” said Augustine.  The boy stood up, looked straight into the eyes of Augustine and replied, “What you are trying to do - trying to comprehend the immensity of God with your small head - is even more impossible.”  Then he vanished.  It was an angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson.
 
Later, Augustine wrote: "You see the Trinity if you see love."  According to him the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of loving. This means that we can understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity more readily with the heart than with our feeble mind.