11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2016

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

My Body Odor needs Christ’s Perfume!

A man feared his wife wasn’t hearing as well as she used to, and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem. The doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform, to give the doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.

Here’s what you do,” said the doctor, “stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.” That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He says to himself, “I’m about 40 feet away, let’s see what happens.” Then in a normal tone he asks, ‘Honey, what’s for dinner?” No response. So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Still no response.

Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Again he gets no response.. So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Again there is no response. So he walks right up behind her. “Honey, what’s for dinner?” He now hears the answer: “Jack, for the FIFTH time, CHICKEN !! “

Body odor needs a reversed technique from the one prescribed above, one needs to come close to perceive it, distance shields one from it. The owner of the body gets so used to it that he/she does not perceive it anymore, but that does not mean it is not there. This is the story of sin, it is the reality of life for the self-righteous who consider others as sinners except themselves.

Adultery and fornication, that is it! Despite polygyny, David was not contented, he was not satiated: he killed Uriah and took his wife! He did this, while enjoying God’s blessing and election as the king of Israel, as God’s anointed, as leader of God’s people who stands to dispense justice and equity. In short, David forgets something important, NATHAN – gift.

God sends the prophet Nathan to remind David that whatever he enjoys is a gift, a free gift from God. The name of the prophet, Nathan, which means “gift” or Elnathan – God’s gift, recalls a God who qualifies those he calls to his service, and how ungrateful they often turn out to be by abusing the gifts of God to them. Indeed, David, God’s candidate for the leadership of Israel, disappoints God, and all God says is: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13b)!

The Psalmist must have contemplated hard and strong about the Ways of the Lord for him to have come up with today’s responsorial Psalm (Psalm 32:1-2): “Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. Blessed the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile.” Really? What happens to God’s justice, his retributive justice, when he forgives sins? So, Uriah died to no purpose? Imagine how much of innocent blood is shed every minute, ranging from Boko Haram massacre to euthanasia, abortion, ISIL and summary and capital executions in many countries of the world: where is God, when all these happen?

Our gospel reading today points out where God is, when things go wrong – he is sitting right next to the oppressed person, the victim of injustice and cruelty! Yes, sitting; not standing! “Standing” is the position of battle, except when one is sitting on a horse or a weapon of war. A woman was insulted and denigrated, and Jesus says, in her defense: “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). What about the denigrator? Was the free dinner he offered Jesus in the way of justice, is it a bribe in order to keep Jesus mute?

Our second reading solves this riddle for us. Salvation, not to say Justification, is a free gift of God, unmerited by any human being. Yet, that is God’s gift, Elnathan, to human beings. Everyone one of us is a sinner, which makes it difficult for God to take sides and invoke his justice!

Less we forget, each show of divine weakness is an opportunity for salvation. Even though God does not activate his justice here and now, his silence is a warning sign and an offer for the perpetrator of evil to repent. Surely, the verdict, “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13b), came after David’s admittance of wrong doing: “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13a). Also, the tag “a sinful woman in the city” already shows why she came after Jesus – Saviour, she came to have her sins forgiven.

One of the ironies of life and a major obstacle of Christianity is the tragedy of self-righteousness, when one forgets to number oneself among sinners, not with complacency but with a strong determination for conversion. Sin is a body odor that every human being carries through life, so there is no need to ask Jesus to stand up to our defense against others because we are all convicts, sinners. The option left for God is to extend his forgiveness to us under whatever pretext, provided we show signs of remorse and compunction!

Christ is the deodorant which takes away our body odor, our sins. Each time we take the step toward repentance and penance, he readily forgives us our sins. If Luke tells a story of two debtors in the gospel, it is because Jesus says both the woman and his host, the Pharisee, are sinners to whom he brings salvation. Unfortunately, only the woman was forgiven because she takes the initiative to seek Jesus out. Jesus’ host was preoccupied by the woman’s body odor without minding his own. In our story, the husband did not do his own hearing check, but was out to solve his wife’s; to his utter dismay, he is the deaf party!

When I watch religious and political debates on the television, or listen in on the radio, or participation in dialogues, all that I hear are the sins of others not my own; all I hear is why the other is qualified for condemnation, and not myself. In fact, it is the other persons’ weaknesses that merit condemnation and not mine, because God understands mine, but not my neighbors. Perhaps Fr. Raymond Arazu,C.S.Sp. is right, when he said: “only those who have enemies want Hell to exist, where their enemies will burn. But no one wishes to see their loved ones in Hell!”

Thanks be to God we have been justified by God and we have been adopted as his children; this much we get from our second reading. Thanks be to God that he treats me, a sinner, with love because I am his child, so he forgives my sins. Thanks be to God that when I am written off by friends and foes, Christ readily defends me as he defends the woman-sinner of today’s gospel. Yes, my body odor, my sins, need Christ’s perfume, his forgiveness!

Assignment for the Week:

Could you go to Confession this week, to remind yourself that you are a sinner in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness?