Pentecost IV: Forgiveness

Two thirds of the statements attributed to Jesus relate directly or indirectly to the subject of forgiveness.  It is not surprising, then, that the first act of the Risen Christ was to confer on his Church the authority to forgive sins.  That is a great responsibility and a great honour.

Yom Kippur is the day of atonement in the Jewish religion, our mother tradition.  On that day faithful Jews come to their temple or synagogue to ask for forgiveness and to be enrolled in the Book of Life for the coming year.  But there is one hitch:  a Jew may not come to the Yom Kippur service without first having spent the day seeking to be reconciled to those persons by whom offended or whom one has offended,  This is nothing new; it is ancient Jewish teaching.  When Jesus said in the Our Father "forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,"  he was simply repeating a prayer recited every morning by every observant Palestinian Jew.  You cannot hold a grudge and then ask for God's pardon.

Our gospel story (Lk 7:36 et seq.)  is one of four accounts of the anointing of Jesus by a woman.  Each recounting has a different theological concern, shown in the figure objecting to the anointing with rich perfume.  In Matthew, the crowd object.  In Mark, the apostles object.  In John's very late gospel, the mysterious "Judas: objects.  Here in Luke, Simon, a pharisee, objects because the woman has a reputation and rabbis should shun such sinners.  Jesus says that Simon has little love and will receive little forgiveness.  The woman of ill repute knows she is a sinner, has much love and self- awareness and, so, Jesus forgives her sin.
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We Christians are not confined by the Yom Kippur protocols, although we do have the Lenten season as our model of penance.  Nevertheless, there is no bad time for forgiveness and too often accidents and life events take away loved ones still out of a state of our grace.  That is supremely sad.  The great rabbinic sage Israel Salander tells of visiting a cobbler.  After going to bed the first night, he realized there was a light streaming into his room.  Investigating, he found his host repairing shoes in the middle of the night.  When Salander inquired about it, the host said, "As long as the candle is burning, it is possible to mend."

We never know how long the candle of our life will burn, so mend as soon as you can.