Gospel: Luke: 7: 36-50

 

One of the aspects of the novelty of the Good News of Jesus is the surprising attitude of Jesus toward women. 

 

At the time of the New Testament women lived marginalized. In the Synagogue they could not participate in the public life and they could not be witnesses. Many women, though, resisted this exclusion. From the time of Ezra, the marginalization of women had been increasing on the part of the religious authority, and the resistance of women against their exclusion, also increased, as we can see in the stories of Judith, Esther, Ruth, Noemi, Suzanne, and others. 

 

This resistance found echo and acceptance in Jesus. In the episode of the woman with the perfume there is inconformity which springs up and the resistance of the women in the life of every day and the acceptance of Jesus.

 

Three completely different persons meet with one another: Jesus, Simon, the Pharisee, a practicing Jew, and the woman, whom they said that she was a sinner. Jesus was accepting a person, who, according to the custom of the time, could not be accepted, because she was a sinner. A Pharisee thinks that he is not a sinner because he observes the law in everything. 

 

What is important is not the observance of the law in itself, but the love with which I observe the law, the will of God. It is faith and hope which helps the woman to encounter herself and to encounter God. In the relationship with Jesus, a new force springs up in her and makes her be born again.