“…at his feet…”
The actions of the sinful woman in today’s Gospel speak a great deal on her interior disposition toward Our Lord. No word is spoken by this woman, yet Jesus is so moved that He says to her, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50).
How does she express her faith to Jesus? Her faith was acted out in charity. Saint Paul says that we are saved by grace, through faith, acted out in good works (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10).It was by grace that Jesus came to dine with sinners; it was through the woman’s faith that moved her to respond to grace in her actions. Her bodily actions speak the message of her soul, as she shows charity to Jesus.
What are the woman’s actions? “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” (Luke 7:37-38).
Why did she wet the feet of Jesus, kiss them, dry them with her hair, and anoint them? She saw Jesus as He truly is, the Son of God. She could not help but seek forgiveness for the sins she committed while in the presence of perfection.
She thus offered to God that which she had abused, says St. Gregory. Her eyes had languished for earthly things, she now punishes them with penitential tears; her hair had been used to delight her eyes, and she uses it to wipe away the tears; her lips had spoken idle words, and with them she kisses the Savior’s feet; the ointment had been used in sinful ways, and now it serves to anoint Christ in advance of His burial (Mt. 26:12). Here we have a true model of real penance. Everything which has served us to sin should be offered to God by mortification, and we should especially use the means, which have occasioned so many sins for the poor, who are represented by the feet of the Lord.[1]
What does each act of Charity tell us about the woman’s faith?
“…She stood behind Him…” – Expresses the virtue of humility. Saint John the Baptist gives voice to the importance of this virtue in the well-known quote: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). Further, she practices being submissive just as Saint Paul describes in Colossians, “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands” (Col. 3:18). Saint Paul uses husband and wife as an analogy of Christ, the Bridegroom and the Church, His Bride. Clearly the woman is not the wife of Jesus, but she is a type of the Church. She allows herself to be under Jesus’ direction; under (sub) the mission of Christ. The faithful members of the Church, like this woman, should be submissive to Christ, their Groom and their Head.
“…At his feet…” – Expresses the virtue of submissiveness to authority, conforming her will to the Will of God.
“…Bathe his feet with her tears…” – Expresses the virtue of true contrition: this woman is living what we pray in the Act of Contrition. She detests her sins and has the firm resolve with the help of grace to sin no more. Saint Peter, after his denial of Christ, would shed these same tears: “He went out and began to weep bitterly” (Luke 22:62). There are two types of water in the Church. Saint Ambrose said, “There are water and tears: the water of Baptism and the tears of repentance.”
“…Wiped his feet with her hair…” – For many women, hair is a prized possession. By using her prized possession to wipe the feet of Jesus, she shows through her charitable act that she is willing to give all to Christ. That which lies within her natural abilities and possession she gives fully and unreservedly to Jesus.
In the gift of her hair, this woman is offering the gift of not just part of herself, but her whole self: body and soul. Why is it that this poor sinner feels that she is a “gift”? Furthermore, what right has she to present this “gift of self” to Jesus? It is Jesus that invites this gift of self from every Christian. We read in the Gospel, “Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:19-21). No one is excluded from the preaching and proclamation; every town, village, and individual, is invited to give the gift of their entire self to Jesus.
The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the good news preached to them (Luke 7:22). With these words from the Prophet Isaiah (35:5-6, 61:1), Jesus sets forth the meaning of his own mission: all who suffer because their lives are in some way “diminished” thus hear from him the “good news” of God’s concern for them, and then know for certain that their lives too are a gift carefully guarded in the hands of the Father (cf. Mt. 6:25-34).[2]
“…Anointed them with ointment…” – The woman gives not only what she naturally possesses (her hair), but also what she has come to possess in regards to the world. Her hair is natural to her; she was born with it. Her hair was not bought. However, the ointment is a worldly good, something acquired by gift or money. By anointing Jesus with ointment, she shows a detachment from worldly goods.