NOTES for Luk 7:36-50
This passage answers the question of those who do not understand how to come to love God. There are probably many paths by which one can discover this amazing feeling of love for the Creator. Some come through love for creation, for nature, for another person; others through gratitude for the life they have been given. Another path leads through suffering and the realization that God shares in our suffering. There are many paths; we cannot list them all here. But here is yet another one. It is not among the easiest: it is the path taken by the sinful woman, through recognizing the full depth of her sinfulness. Few people apply this passage to themselves. ‘What sort of sinner am I compared with today's world, steeped in debauchery?!’ But that is precisely the point: we must look not at the world, but at God. And beside His absolute holiness, each of us is like this woman.
Yet this realization alone is, of course, not enough. Indeed, having only this realization is not merely insufficient but very dangerous. We must also learn to express it in tears. ‘Never receive Communion without tears,’ says one of the Fathers. But tears are not enough either. Something else is needed. And when we reflect on what is still missing, we arrive at the very goal of this path: love. The completion of it all is a fervent love that realizes that the Lord, in all His holiness, descends to our sinfulness in order to raise us once again to His holiness.