Your Sins are Forgiven

One of the most challenging aspects of parenting is seeking forgiveness. I mess this parenting thing up all of the time—just ask my wife and children. It is humbling to approach a young person and admit that I have wronged them. It is also humbling to admit that I have wronged God. Franciscan Media reminds us that ‘seeking forgiveness is sometimes difficult work. It is made easier by meeting people who, without trivializing our sins, assure us that God rejoices over our repentance. Being forgiven lifts a weight and prompts us to acts of charity.’ Margaret of Cortona is one such person who helps us understand our mistakes in light of God’s rejoicing through our repentance.

Margaret was born in 1247 in Tuscany to a small farmer. Her mother died when she was only seven years old and when her father remarried, it was to a woman who cared little for his daughter. At the age of seventeen, to escape the difficult life at home, she ran off with a young man. Though they never married, they lived together in his castle for nine years, until his murder in a nearby forest. During that time, they had a son together and she begged him to marry her, but this was not to be. When she returned to her father’s house with her son in tow, Margaret was rejected. Seeking to repent of her previous life of ease, she sought asylum with the Franciscan Friars at Cortona. She earned a living by nursing sick women. Eventually, she joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and her son also joined the Franciscans a few years later. Margaret advanced rapidly in prayer and was said to be in direct contact with Jesus, as exemplified by frequent ecstasies.

It was only after Margaret put aside the cares of the world and sought Jesus that she was able to find the love she had always craved. In doing so, she became an incredible witness of God’s mercy and grace through her service to the sick and poor.

The gospel lesson appointed for today, Luke 7:36-50, tells us about another woman who sought God’s forgiveness and had her life transformed. There are some traditions that claim this woman is Mary Magdalene, and speculation within church traditions that this woman was a prostitute, but the story itself gives us none of those details. In John’s account this woman is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

This mysterious woman, who is certainly mysterious in her identity but also in her behavior, comes (perhaps even uninvited) to the dinner, weeps upon Jesus’ feet, dries them with her hair and then anoints them with costly perfume. This intimate scene is shocking and Simon the Pharisee is outraged that Jesus would even allow such a woman to touch him. After all wasn’t he a prophet and shouldn’t he know that she was a sinner?

And she is a sinner, like all of us are, but unlike the Pharisee in the story, she knows that she is a sinner and that Jesus offers forgiveness and a restoration to wholeness.

Simon the Pharisee falsely believes that he is somehow better than other people, that he can earn his salvation, that he needs God’s grace less than other people. He is cold and mechanical in his approach to the law and to God. The woman on the other hand, knows how much in need of grace she truly is. Her emotional response in the presence of Jesus is right and holy, and an example that all of us should think about in our own encounter with sin and God’s holiness.

This woman’s love for Jesus and her sorrow become emblematic of her faith. Through her compassionate act of generosity in bathing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, she demonstrates abundant love. Her love for Jesus becomes the sign of God’s extravagant love for us.

Jesus says, ‘Your sins are forgiven… go in peace.’ In these grace filled words, he offers more than a forgiveness that merely wipes the slate clean. Jesus’ forgiveness lifts the burden of shame, to give her value and worth in spite of how unworthy she feels.

This kind of forgiveness allows us to release the moments in time when we feel like failures—to ourselves, our families, or our God. For those with chronic shame, forgiveness can open the possibility that one is worth something. In fact, one is worth quite a lot. This is freedom. Jesus reminds us that this freedom is the gift of a loving God. Reverend Verlee A. Copeland writes in Feasting on the Word, “A heart that is bound by sin and shame withers and dies, but the love of a forgiving God lifts our heart to heights beyond our greatest dreams.”

Today we remember and give thanks for the lives of Margaret of Cortona and the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. They remind us of the power of God’s forgiveness. May we also be humble and ask forgiveness of God and others, especially our children, that we might be reconciled in peace and love.

[Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons]