Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ heals the dying servant of the Centurion. Second, at verse 11, He raises from death the son of the widow at Nain. Third, at verse 19, when the disciples of John the Baptist ask, "Who are You?" He answers, not in words, but by deeds and miracles, that He is the Messiah or Christ. Fourth, at verse 24, He praises John as His own and God's angel. Fifth, at verse 36, He forgives the sins of the penitent Magdalene. I have explained the first part at Matthew 8:5; the third and fourth at Matthew 11, with the verses noted in the margin. Therefore the second and fifth remain to be explained here.
Vulgate Text: Luke 7:1-50
1. And when He had fulfilled all His words in the ears of the people, He entered Capernaum. 2. Now a certain centurion's servant, being sick, was about to die, who was dear unto him. 3. And when he had heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, asking Him that He would come and heal his servant. 4. And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him earnestly, saying to Him: He is worthy that You should do this for him. 5. For he loves our nation, and he himself has built us a synagogue. 6. And Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying: Lord, do not trouble Yourself: for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. 7. For which cause neither did I think myself worthy to come to You; but say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 8. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to one: Go, and he goes; and to another: Come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does it. 9. Which when Jesus heard, He marveled; and turning to the multitudes that followed Him, He said: Amen, I say to you, I have not found so great faith, not even in Israel. 10. And those who had been sent, returning home, found the servant who had been sick, well. 11. And it came to pass: afterward He went into a city called Nain; and His disciples went with Him, and a great crowd. 12. And when He drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow, and a great crowd of the city was with her. 13. And when the Lord saw her, moved with mercy toward her, He said to her: Do not weep. 14. And He came near and touched the bier (and those who carried it stood still). And He said: Young man, I say to you, arise. 15. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. 16. And fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited His people. 17. And this report of Him went out into all Judea, and into all the country round about. 18. And John's disciples reported to him all these things. 19. And John called two of his disciples and sent them to Jesus, saying: Are You He who is to come, or do we look for another? 20. And when the men had come to Him, they said: John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying: Are You He who is to come, or do we look for another? 21. (And in that very hour He cured many of their diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many that were blind He gave sight.) 22. And answering, He said to them: Go and tell John what you have heard and seen: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them; 23. and blessed is whoever shall not be scandalized in Me. 24. And when the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: What did you go out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken by the wind? 25. But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who are in costly apparel and live delicately are in kings' houses. 26. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 27. This is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who shall prepare Your way before You. 28. For I say to you: Among those born of women there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 29. And all the people who heard Him, and the publicans, justified God, having been baptized with John's baptism. 30. But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, not having been baptized by him. 31. And the Lord said: To what then shall I compare the men of this generation? and to what are they like? 32. They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another and saying: We piped for you, and you did not dance; we mourned, and you did not weep. 33. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say: He has a devil. 34. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say: Behold, a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners. 35. And wisdom is justified by all her children. 36. And one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. 37. And behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that He had reclined at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment; 38. and standing behind at His feet, she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39. And the Pharisee who had invited Him, seeing it, said within himself: This man, if He were a prophet, would surely know what kind of woman this is who touches Him, that she is a sinner. 40. And answering, Jesus said to him: Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said: Master, say it. 41. A certain creditor had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. 42. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore loves him more? 43. Simon answered and said: I suppose the one to whom he forgave more. And He said to him: You have judged rightly. 44. And turning to the woman, He said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet; but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45. You gave Me no kiss; but she, since I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46. You did not anoint My head with oil; but she has anointed My feet with ointment. 47. Wherefore I say to you: Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, the same loves less. 48. And He said to her: Your sins are forgiven. 49. And those who reclined at table with Him began to say within themselves: Who is this who even forgives sins? 50. And He said to the woman: Your faith has saved you: go in peace.
Verse 1: And When He Had Fulfilled All His Words
1. AND WHEN HE HAD FULFILLED (supply: speaking; the Syriac: when He had finished; others: when He had completed) all His words.
Verse 2: Was About to Die
2. WAS ABOUT TO DIE. — He was dying, drawing his last breath, in his death-agony. The Syriac: he was very close to dying.
Verse 3: He Sent to Him Elders of the Jews
3. HE SENT TO HIM ELDERS OF THE JEWS, ASKING HIM TO COME AND HEAL HIS SERVANT. — Luke attributes the request of the Jews to the Centurion, because they were making it in his name; otherwise the Centurion was not asking that Christ come to him, but only that they should say to Him: "Lord, my servant lies at home a paralytic and is grievously tormented," as Matthew has it. Thus Francis Lucas. For the Jews knew that the Centurion desired this, but out of humility did not dare to ask: they therefore ask in his name what they knew he desired in his heart but did not dare to request. Add that "to come" means: to apply Himself, setting aside other occupations, to healing the boy: for this is in Hebrew Na ba, that is, "He came." So God came to Abimelech, Gen. 20; to Balaam, Num. 22; to the Hebrews, Deut. 33, when He appeared to them and gave the Law. So it is said of John the Baptist: "John came, neither eating nor drinking," that is, he showed himself, presented himself, appeared, was made manifest. Therefore the emphasis must not be put on the word "come," but on "heal"; for this was the sum of the request, that He should heal, whether by coming or by remaining.
Verse 6: Do Not Trouble Yourself
6. DO NOT TROUBLE YOURSELF. — Do not trouble Yourself, that is, do not afflict and tire Yourself by undertaking the burden of so long a journey to visit and tend my servant, but remaining and resting here, by Your word and command alone, heal my absent servant. The Syriac: do not toil, do not weary Yourself.
Verse 11: A City Which Is Called Nain
11. AND IT CAME TO PASS: AFTERWARD (in Greek, ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς, that is, in the following, namely ἡμέρᾳ, that is, day, that is, the next day: so the Syriac) Jesus was going into a city WHICH IS CALLED NAIN. — It was a city of Galilee, two miles distant from Mount Tabor, says St. Jerome in On Hebrew Places, which the brook Kishon washes, named from beauty. For "Naim" in Hebrew is the same as fair, comely, pleasant, delightful. Hence Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, mourning her dead sons, said: "Do not call me Naomi (that is, fair), but call me Mara, because the Almighty has filled me with bitterness exceedingly," Ruth 1:20. The widow at Nain could say the same, weeping for her lost only son. And Psalm 132: "Behold, how good and how pleasant (in Hebrew naim) it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" On the other hand, how sad and grievous it is for a son to be separated from his mother, a brother from his brother, by death!
He names "Nain," both for the fullness of the history and the miracle, so that the place where it happened may be known; and because Christ "went about all the cities and villages, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity," as Matthew says, ch. 9, v. 35; and to show the bitterness of the funeral and a mother's grief. For death was more bitter to the son, and likewise to the mother, in Nain, a pleasant and beautiful city, than in a country town or rustic village; just as it is more bitter for a youth to die in the bloom of his age than for an old man in feeble senility; for the strong than for the sick; for the rich than for the poor; for the happy than for the wretched; in flowering May than in dreadful December, according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus 41:1: "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of you to a man who has peace in his possessions, to the man at rest, whose ways are prosperous in all things, and who is still able to take food! O death, your judgment is good to the needy man, and to him whose strength fails, who is worn out with age, and who is anxious about all things!"
Verse 12: Behold, a Dead Man Was Being Carried Out
12. AND WHEN HE DREW NEAR TO THE GATE OF THE CITY, BEHOLD, A DEAD MAN WAS BEING CARRIED OUT, THE ONLY SON OF HIS MOTHER: AND SHE WAS A WIDOW, AND A GREAT MULTITUDE OF THE CITY WAS WITH HER. — "Behold," as if to say: Lo, by chance and fortune, if you look at secondary and human causes, a funeral met Christ; but to Christ this meeting was foreseen, provided, and intended, so that He might raise the dead man. Christ wished this meeting to appear fortuitous to men, lest, if He had sought it out, His miracle and benefit should seem to have been contrived and forced by Christ, and therefore be less welcome and less esteemed. For, as the common saying goes: "unsolicited merchandise stinks."
WAS BEING CARRIED OUT — outside the city. From this gather that the Jews had their tombs not in the city, but outside it, both for cleanliness and for health, lest the corpses by their stench and decay infect the air. So also Joseph of Arimathea had a tomb outside Jerusalem on Mount Calvary, in which he buried Christ. Hence Adrichomius, in his Description of Jerusalem, n. 204, locates in the valley of Jehoshaphat (where the universal judgment and the common resurrection will take place) the tombs of all the citizens of Jerusalem, and the common cemetery. Except the kings: for these David built a tomb in Sion, 3 Kings 2:11.
So also the pagan Romans buried their own outside the city in the Campus Martius, as Livy testifies; indeed, by the law of the Twelve Tables it was forbidden to bury the dead within the city. Theodoric, king of Italy, revived this law which had fallen into disuse; it appears in Cassiodorus, ch. 3. The Christians too, when persecution pressed upon them, buried their dead in crypts they themselves had dug outside Rome, as may even now be seen in the cemetery of St. Priscilla, of St. Sebastian, of St. Laurence, etc. But afterwards, when peace was given to the Church, cemeteries were established and consecrated in the city beside the churches; and this, first, so that they might continually set the memory of death before the faithful as a spur to a holy life. Thus the Spartans buried their own within the city by the institution of Lycurgus, who by this method wished to accustom the youth to honor death, not to fear it, as Plutarch testifies in his Laconian writings. Second, by certain prayers and rites they consecrated the cemeteries against the deceptions of demons, who are wont to dwell in tombs and to take on the bodies of the dead, as will appear at Luke 8:27. Third, they did the same with this intent, that the faithful entering the church might pray for those buried there, so that, freed from Purgatory and going to heaven, they might deserve to rise to glory with the saints on the day of judgment. Likewise that they might be partakers of the sacrifice of the Mass which is offered in the church, and be aided by the merits and prayers of the Saints who rest or are venerated in the church; for which reason Constantine the Great chose to be buried at Constantinople in the portico of the Holy Apostles, and Theodosius at Rome in the Church of St. Peter.
Finally, the tombs of heroes were within the city, like temples in which they were venerated. Hear Prudentius, Book I Against Symmachus: "And one may count as many temples of gods at Rome as tombs of heroes in the city: those whom fable ennobles as Manes, our people venerate and adore." So also Christians built altars and churches over the tombs of the Martyrs, as is plain at Rome in the basilica of St. Peter, of St. Paul, of St. Laurence, of St. Cecilia, of St. Agnes, of St. Balbina, of St. Bibiana, etc., the cause and origin of which I have set forth at Apoc. 6:9, on the words: "I saw under the altar the souls of the slain."
ONLY. — In Greek μονογενής, that is, only-begotten, which is more than "only"; namely that his mother bore him alone and had no more sons, so that all maternal love seemed gathered and fixed on him. For the mother loved him as her only-begotten, as the hope of her posterity, as the staff of her old age, as the light of her eyes. Wherefore a mother's grief over a dead only-begotten son is the greatest and most bitter, according to that saying of Zechariah 12:10: "And they shall mourn for Him with mourning as for an only-begotten son." And that of Jeremiah 6:26: "O daughter of My people, gird yourself with sackcloth and roll yourself in ashes; make mourning for an only-begotten son, a bitter lamentation."
AND A GREAT MULTITUDE OF THE CITY WITH HER. — This widow therefore appears to have been a leading matron of the city, "whose dignity is shown by the crowd of mourners," says St. Ambrose. Add that in the gate there used to be a great crowd of people coming in and going out, especially because in old times the marketplace for goods for sale was in the gates, as also the tribunal in which lawsuits and cases were decided by the judges. By God's design it came about that, "this great miracle being seen, many witnesses, many praisers of God, would arise," says Bede.
Verse 13: When the Lord Saw Her, Moved with Mercy
13. AND WHEN THE LORD SAW HER, MOVED WITH MERCY TOWARD HER, HE SAID: DO NOT WEEP. — But begin to rejoice, because I am about to raise up your son, as it were, says Bede: "Cease to weep as for a dead man whom you will soon see rising alive." And St. Ambrose: "For He forbids her to weep for one to whom resurrection was owed."
Verse 14: Young Man, I Say to You, Arise
14. AND HE CAME NEAR AND TOUCHED THE BIER (AND THOSE WHO WERE CARRYING IT STOOD STILL), AND SAID: YOUNG MAN, I SAY TO YOU, ARISE. — "Arise." Elijah, Elisha and others raised the dead by praying to God to bring back the soul into the body; but Christ does this, not by praying, but by commanding, as the Lord of life and death, and therefore as God. Hence Cyril: "He touches, he says, to show that His body is effective for human salvation. For just as iron joined to fire does the work of fire and ignites straw, so the flesh united to the Word gives life."
Verse 15: He Sat Up and Began to Speak
15. AND HE THAT WAS DEAD SAT UP AND BEGAN TO SPEAK, AND HE GAVE HIM TO HIS MOTHER. — "Sat up," that is, raised himself so as to sit, and therefore came back to life: "For sitting and speaking are true proofs of being raised, says Titus: for a lifeless body can neither sit nor speak."
HE GAVE HIM TO HIS MOTHER. — As if to say: With His right hand He raised him to his feet, and led him as he came down from the bier or stretcher to his mother, and gave him back to her alive, saying: Behold your son, O mother, receive him and lead him home, that you may enjoy him and that he may serve and obey you as a son obeys his mother.
Verse 16: A Great Prophet Has Risen Among Us
16. AND FEAR SEIZED THEM ALL; AND THEY GLORIFIED GOD, SAYING: A GREAT PROPHET HAS RISEN AMONG US; AND GOD HAS VISITED HIS PEOPLE.
FEAR, — that is, reverence and a kind of holy awe, mixed with wonder and joy.
GLORIFIED (in Greek ἐδόξαζον, that is, were glorifying) GOD.
A GREAT PROPHET, — the Messiah, for all were then eagerly awaiting His coming.
Verse 17: This Report of Him Went Out into All Judea
17. AND THIS REPORT OF HIM WENT OUT INTO ALL JUDEA, AND INTO ALL THE COUNTRY ROUND ABOUT.
Allegorically: the widow is the Church; she mourns her sons, that is, Christians who through mortal sin are deprived of and dead to the grace of God, which is the life and as it were the soul of the soul, and by her tears obtains for them pardon and the life of grace. Hence Christ first stops the funeral, that is, restrains and curbs the desires which dominate the young, that the sinner may follow them no longer. Second, He touches the bier, that is, the wood of the Cross, and by it raises him from death. For by the merit of Christ's Cross, repentance and grace are inspired by God in sinners. Hence third, the dead man rises and speaks, that is, begins to act well and to praise God, and therefore wonder seizes all who behold so great and so divine a change, and they themselves with one voice glorify God. So St. Ambrose, Euthymius, Theophylact, Bede here; and St. Augustine, sermon 44 On the Words of the Lord. A living example is in St. Monica, who as a widow, constantly mourning her son Augustine, dead by heresy and luxury, by her prayers and tears called him back to a holy life, and indeed made him a chief doctor of the Church, as he himself relates in the books of his Confessions. Again, more particularly, the widow is the Church, the son is the people of the Gentiles, dead and buried. Hence it is necessary that Christ cry out to him in his heart with a loud and powerful voice, that he may come to his senses. Thus the Gloss.
Tropologically: in this widow is expressed what the soul of a Pastor, Rector, or Confessor ought to do every day, when one of his weak young charges happens to fall into mortal sin and to be led to the tomb of eternal despair; namely, he ought to follow this funeral with his fellow-citizens, with tears, groans, and laments; thus it will come to pass that the Lord will console him, and first, touching the bier, will make the bearers of the funeral stand still, that is, will put an end to the desires; second, will raise him to life; third, will lift him up to works of virtue, so that he may speak and confess his sins and proclaim God's grace. Thus at last he is restored to his mother, whence follows greater joy than the prior grief had been; there follows wonder and the proclamation of the divine goodness in many.
Again, the widow is the soul, the daughter is the dead mind: this soul therefore, if it weeps over its own funeral, especially if it joins the tears of others, Christ will raise it up. The bier is an evilly secure conscience; those who carry it to be buried are unclean desires or the flatteries of companions, which when the Lord touches them stand still, that is, are restrained, says Bede. Moreover Theophylact says: The widow is the soul losing her husband, that is, the divine word; the son is the intellect; the bier is the body.
Finally, Christ is recorded to have raised three dead persons: first, the daughter of the synagogue ruler in the house — that is, a sinner who keeps his sin in his mind and thought; second, this young man of the widow at the gate — that is, a sinner who has manifested his sin in deed and rubs it off on others; third, Lazarus in the tomb — that is, a sinner who has consummated sin in deed, and by repeating it has contracted it as a habit, so that he lies in it as in a tomb, without hope of salvation and resurrection. The first Christ raises by praying apart and in secret, the second by commanding, the third by crying out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth," because a sin merely mental is easily cured, a vocal sin more difficultly, and most difficult of all a real sin often repeated, in which a man lies as if asleep, indeed as if dead and buried. Hence Christ must cry out to him in his heart with a loud and powerful voice, that he may come to his senses. Thus the Gloss.
Verse 29: And the Publicans Justified God
29. AND THE PUBLICANS JUSTIFIED GOD, — that is, they confessed and professed God to be just, right, kind, provident, in that He had sent them John the Baptist, and through his preaching and baptism had so graciously provided for their salvation as to lead them to repentance, pardon, and grace. So the word "justify" is taken below at v. 35, and at 1 Tim. 3:16. The rest I have explained at Matth. 11:20.
Note that these words seem rather to be Luke's than Christ's. For a little after follows: "And the Lord said." So Jansenius and others, although Maldonatus thinks they are Christ's words.
Verse 30: But the Pharisees Despised the Counsel of God
30. BUT THE PHARISEES, etc., DESPISED THE COUNSEL OF GOD AGAINST THEMSELVES, — that is, in themselves, namely within themselves, in their own hearts, because they did not dare to find fault with it publicly. Or "against," that is contra "themselves," that is, to their own ruin and damnation. So Bede.
Verse 36: One of the Pharisees Asked Him to Eat with Him
36. AND ONE OF THE PHARISEES ASKED HIM TO EAT WITH HIM. AND HE WENT INTO THE HOUSE OF THE PHARISEE AND RECLINED AT TABLE.
Verse 37: A Woman in the City Who Was a Sinner
AND BEHOLD (a wondrous thing, and a wondrous example of penitence) A WOMAN, — by name Mary Magdalene, as Luke calls her in the next chapter, v. 2. The question is asked here whether she is the same woman as the one in Matt. 26:7 and John 12:3 who anointed Christ; or whether there was one Magdalene, or two, or three. St. Chrysostom, hom. 81 on Matthew, thinks there were two; Origen, Theophylact, and Euthymius, on Matt. 26, think there were three: namely, the first here; the second, who anointed Christ two days before His Passion, Matt. 26:7; the third, who six days before the Passover and the Passion poured an alabaster flask of nard upon Christ's head, John 12. Following these, Judocus Clictoveus and Jacobus Faber wrote little books about three Magdalenes; but John of Rochester (Fisher), in a book published on this matter, learnedly refutes their error.
I say therefore that it was one and the same woman, namely Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who anointed Christ not three times but twice, as Luke, John, and Matthew relate.
It is proved first, because this is the common sense of the faithful and the Church, for in the Ecclesiastical Office, the Church attributes everything to one Magdalene, the one whom Luke here narrates.
Second, because John, ch. 11:2, says of her: "Now Mary (the sister of Martha and Lazarus, as I said at v. 1) was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair": where he plainly alludes to this anointing in Luke, and indicates that there was only one woman who anointed Christ. For if there had been several, he would not have sufficiently designated her by the anointing, saying: "Now Mary was the one who anointed the Lord, etc." For the sense is, as if to say: When I name Mary, I mean that famous one who as a penitent anointed the feet of Jesus, Luke 7, whom therefore all know to be no other than the Magdalene.
Third, John, dealing with the same woman, 12:2, says: "They made Him (Jesus) a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with Him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pistic nard of great price and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair." Where he plainly indicates that this is the same Magdalene, namely the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who anointed Christ here, and again six days before the Passover at Bethany. Now the anointing of which Matthew speaks at 26:6 is the same as the one which John describes at 12:1 and following, as is plain to anyone who compares Matthew with John. For both took place at Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper; both were performed by the pouring of an alabaster flask over the head of Jesus. Therefore one and the same was the Magdalene, who anointed Jesus not three times, as Origen wishes, but only twice, namely here and six days before His death, John 12:2 and Matt. 26:7.
Fourth, the same is clear from Ecclesiastical history and from the tradition of the people of Marseilles and Provence, among whom this is a constant report and tradition. Likewise from the inscription on the monument of St. Magdalene, which they say St. Maximus, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, erected for her, in which all that has been said is attributed to one and the same Magdalene.
Fifth, this is the opinion of St. Augustine, Book II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, ch. 79; of St. Cyprian in the treatise On the Twofold Martyrdom; of St. Gregory in homily 33 on the Gospels; of Toletus, Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and generally of the other interpreters.
You will say: This Magdalene followed Jesus from Galilee, as is plain at Matt. 27:55: therefore she seems to have been a Galilean, and so different from Mary the sister of Martha, for she seems to have been Judean, because she dwelt in Bethany, which was near Jerusalem. I reply that she was Judean by family origin, but seems to have lived in Galilee, namely in the village called Magdalum, perhaps because she had married the lord of that place, or because in the division of her father's inheritance this village had fallen to her by lot; and from this Magdalum she seems to have been called Magdalene. So Jansenius, Adrichomius, Francis Lucas, and others.
WHO WAS IN THE CITY. — Some think it was Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was in Judea; whereas all these acts of Christ seem to have taken place not in Judea, but in Galilee, where Christ was preaching, as is clear from the Chronology which I have prefixed to the Gospels. Wherefore Toletus, Francis Lucas and others more probably think that this city was Nain, in which Christ a little before, at v. 12, had raised the widow's son from death. Others think this city was Magdalum, where the Magdalene dwelt. Adrichomius favors this in his entry under "Magdalum."
A SINNER. — Some moderns, in order to honor the Magdalene, think that she was not unchaste, but vain, dressy, and pompous, and therefore a scandal and an enticement to luxury, and was therefore called a sinner. But these, as much as they consult the honor of the Magdalene, so much do they detract from the grace of Christ and the penitence of the Magdalene, which made her from a sinner so great a saint. For "sinner" is said by way of antonomasia, because she herself was wont to sin gravely and to entice others to sin with her. Therefore "sinner" is the same as "harlot," not one publicly exposed to all common people, but one who had many private noble lovers and followers. Hence St. Augustine calls her a harlot in serm. 58 De Tempore; St. Jerome on Matt. 26; Isidore of Pelusium, Book I, ep. 142; St. Ambrose, Gregory, Bede, and St. Chrysostom, hom. 62 to the People, where he says that on her account Christ said: "Harlots and publicans shall go before you into the kingdom of God." Hence the Church has sung of her:
"She who committed so many crimes, / from the very jaws of hell, / returns to the threshold of life. / After the scandals of fleeting flesh, / from a cauldron she becomes a phial, / from a vessel of contumely / she is translated into a vessel of glory."
Christ, no doubt, allowed her to wallow in the filth of luxury, so that in cleansing her He might show the power of His grace, while He makes an angelic woman out of a harlot; just as the greater the disease, the greater is shown to be the power of the physician healing it. Nor does this in any way diminish the honor of the Magdalene, but rather adds to it: for the greater and the more constant her crimes were, the greater is her penitence shown to be, and the more heroic her spirit, which immediately extricated itself from them. For God willed to set up the Magdalene as a living example of penitence to all sinners, that no one might despair of pardon because of the enormity of his crimes, but rather might trust in the immense mercy of God and hope for pardon, mindful of St. Paul's saying: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the information of those who shall believe in Him for everlasting life," 1 Tim. 1:15.
Truly St. Gregory says: "Often a fervent life after sin is more pleasing to God than a numbed innocence." Hence innocence, by which one is preserved from sin, is indeed a great benefit of God; but the grace of God in repentance and remission of sins is greater, and is the greater the greater the sins are, because this remission is given to one more unworthy, and therefore the greater is the grace given to him, as St. Thomas teaches. Wherefore sinners, when they repent in earnest, perform heroic deeds by which they surpass the innocent and just, and in humility, austerity, and sanctity transcend them, as may be seen in St. Mary of Egypt, St. Pelagia the penitent, St. Paul, St. Matthew, St. Moses, who from a robber became a penitent and a mirror to monks, etc. For the foulness of his former life, the loathsomeness of his sins, the avenging of the offense, and the love of a God so indulgent to him, apply sharp goads to every virtue in the penitent.
Hence the symbol of repentance is the pearl. For just as the sun by its rays converts the oyster (which is a watery and fetid humor, hidden in a shell) into a precious pearl, so Christ, by the illumination of grace, in converting Magdalene the sinner to repentance, made her a pearl.
AS HE PERCEIVED THAT HE HAD RECLINED IN THE HOUSE OF THE PHARISEE. — It was not fitting that Magdalene, infamous for her wantonness, should do these things in her own house, or in Christ's, or in that of any stranger, but in the house of a Pharisee known to her, so that every suspicion of evil might be removed from men (who are most suspicious in matters of wantonness), and so that propriety and decorum might be looked to in everything. Moreover, she was not ashamed to do these things in the house of a Pharisee who was her friend; for, as St. Gregory says, hom. 33: "Because she was deeply ashamed of herself within, she believed there was nothing that should make her ashamed without." And St. Augustine, homil. 58 De Temp.: "That harlot, he says, who washed the Lord's feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, when she learned that the heavenly Physician had come, of her own accord thrust herself into the house where she had not been invited; and she who before had been bold in face for her ruin, was afterwards yet bolder for her salvation, and therefore deserved to hear that all her sins had been forgiven her." The same, hom. 23 among the 50: "You have seen, he says, a notorious woman, certainly of evil reputation, who was a sinner, breaking in uninvited upon the banquet where her Physician was reclining, and seeking with a pious shamelessness her healing, breaking in importunate to the banquet but opportune to the benefit. For she knew with how great a sickness she labored, and she knew that He to whom she had come was fit to heal her." And it was for this cause that Christ, invited to the Pharisee's banquet, came, that He might there set forth a spiritual banquet of Magdalene's repentance to the guests. Whence Chrysostom, serm. 93: "Christ reclined, he says, not to drink cups flavored with honey and sumptuously perfumed with flowers, but to drink the tears of the penitent from the very fountains of her eyes. God hungers for the tears of offenders, He thirsts for the tears of sinners." For, as St. Bernard says, "the tears of penitents are the wine of angels," which delights every sense of the angels. For St. Bernard adds, serm. 30 on the Canticles: "that in them (the tears) they soften the vines... that there is the fragrance of God, the savor of grace, the taste of indulgence, the gladness of reconciliation, the health of returning innocence, the serenity-laden sweetness of conscience." Tears therefore are to angels colored, fragrant, savory wine.
SHE BROUGHT AN ALABASTER (an alabaster vessel, a box of alabaster stone) OF OINTMENT. — What sort this was, I have told at Matt. 26:7.
AND STANDING BEHIND, BESIDE HIS FEET, SHE BEGAN TO BATHE HIS FEET WITH HER TEARS, AND WIPED THEM WITH THE HAIRS OF HER HEAD, AND KISSED HIS FEET, AND ANOINTED THEM WITH OINTMENT. — "Standing behind, beside His feet." For the ancients reclined at table on couches, that is, lying on dining-couches and propping their head on the elbow, so that the head was toward the table and the feet stretched out toward the outer side, that the place might be convenient for others reclining on the same couch. So Magdalene was able to touch, wash, and wipe Christ's feet from outside. Moreover, this couch does not seem to have been so high that she, standing (as Toletus would have it), could reach Christ's feet, especially since she was tall and stately, as is plain from her huge head which is shown at Marseilles, and from her very large foot, which is preserved at Rome in the church of St. Celsus near the Bridge, where I myself have seen it. "Standing," therefore, here only signifies presence in any posture, as if to say: "Standing," that is, present and resting on her knees at Christ's feet. For this is the posture of a penitent. "She came," says St. Augustine, hom. 23 among the 50, "not to the head of the Lord, but to His feet. And she who long had walked amiss was seeking right footsteps. First she poured out the tears of her heart, and washed the Lord's feet by the homage of confession. With her hair she wiped, kissed, anointed; she spoke silently; she uttered no speech, but showed her devotion."
Here, therefore, was fulfilled in Magdalene that of Cant. I: "Show me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest at noon." And that of v. 12: "While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth its odor." And that of Cant. III, 2: "I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth." See what is said there.
Note here Magdalene's modesty, which is the ornament of youth and of penitence. For she came to Christ, not in front (judging herself, on account of her foul crimes, unworthy of His divine and most pure gaze), but behind; not to the head, but to the feet. "For modesty," as St. Bernard says, serm. 86 on the Canticles, "is the gem of manners, the rod of discipline, the sister of continence, the lamp of a chaste mind, the eraser of evils, and the propagator of inborn purity; the special glory of conscience and the guardian of reputation, the ornament of life, the seat of virtue, the firstfruits of the virtues, the praise of nature and the badge of all honor. The very blush of the cheeks, which modesty sometimes brings on, how much grace and beauty it tends to give to the face it suffuses!"
Note secondly: St. Magdalene, says St. Chrysostom, hom. 11 on Matthew, was the first of whom we read that she went to Christ for the sake of pardon and grace; for others approached Him for the sake of healing. She was therefore as a doe shot through by Christ with the dart of love: whence she ran to Him as one wounded. Christ showed her in her mind her foulness and miserable state: whence, confounded and pierced through with sorrow, she could not bear it for a moment, but at once ran to Christ, that she might free herself from so wretched a state. Hence she broke importunately into the banquet; otherwise she could have waited an hour for Christ as He returned from the banquet in some secret place of the city away from the crowd. For even one mortal sin is so foul and horrible that St. Anselm asserts, in his book On Similitudes, cap. cxc: "If on the one side I should see the shame of sin, and on the other the horror of hell, and were forced to plunge into one of them, I would rather plunge myself into hell than admit sin into me." And he adds: "I would rather enter Gehenna pure from sin than possess the kingdoms of heaven polluted with the filth of sin."
Note thirdly: Magdalene seems to have heard this voice of John the Baptist concerning Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world," John I. Or that of Christ: "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you," Matt. XI. Again, having herself been freed from seven demons through Christ, as we shall hear in chap. VIII, 2, by the divine instinct and impulse of the Holy Spirit she persuaded herself that she was likewise to be freed from the seven, that is, all sins, by Christ. Therefore, penitent and wholly contrite, she came to Christ as to a most holy and divine Prophet, who had from God the power of remitting sins, surely confident that she would obtain from Him pardon of her sins: for Christ drew within by grace her whom He received without by mercy, says St. Gregory.
WITH HER TEARS SHE BEGAN TO BATHE HIS FEET. — Note here the great abundance of tears in the penitent Magdalene, which was so great that she washed and cleansed Christ's feet, dusty from the journey (for Christ went with His upper feet bare, only shod beneath with sandals or soles, as I showed at Matt. X, 10). On their power and efficacy see, among others, St. Chrysostom, serm. On Penitence, vol. V. Hear also St. Ambrose here: "Therefore Christ did not wash His own feet, that we might wash them with our tears. Good are the tears, which can not only wash away our offense, but also water the footprint of the heavenly Word, that His steps may abound in us. Good are the tears, in which there is not only the redemption of sinners but also the refreshment of the just. For it is the voice of the just one: My tears have been my bread day and night." And St. Gregory, hom. 33: "When I think, he says, of Mary's repentance, I would rather weep than say anything. For whose breast, even though stony, would not the tears of this sinner soften, by the example of repentance? For she considered what she had done, and would set no measure to what she would do. She entered above those who were feasting; she came uninvited; among those who were eating, she offered her tears. Learn with what sorrow she burns, who is not ashamed to weep even amid the feast."
AND WIPED THEM WITH THE HAIRS OF HER HEAD. — Linens were not lacking to Magdalene for wiping; but in her zeal for penitence she now dedicates to piety and to Christ the hair which she had once arranged and dyed to lure her lovers. Hence St. Cyprian, tract On the Washing of the Feet: "She used, he says, her hair for a linen, her eyes for a basin, her tears for a baptism: her contrite heart burst forth in tears, faith washed, charity anointed; she made her head a footstool; with her hair flowing about, she wrapped and wiped the sacred feet; keeping nothing of herself for herself, she devoted herself wholly to Thee. And Thou, regarding the affection rather than the deed, didst anoint her as she anointed, didst wash her as she washed, didst wipe within the penitent." St. Euthymius gives the reason, saying: "She makes the instruments of sin instruments of virtue." And more particularly St. Gregory, hom. 33: "What, he says, she had shamefully displayed for herself, she now praiseworthily offered to God. With her eyes she had coveted earthly things; but now, crushing them by penitence, she wept. Her hair she had displayed for the adornment of her face; but now with her hair she wiped her tears. She had spoken proudly with her mouth; but now, kissing the Lord's feet, she fixed it upon the footprints of her Redeemer. As many therefore as were the delights she had in herself, so many holocausts did she find from herself. She turned the number of her crimes into the number of virtues, so that whatever in herself had despised God in fault, should wholly serve God in penitence." Hear also St. Chrysostom, hom. 6 on Matt.: "So too this harlot in the Gospel surpassed even virgins in honor, and being kindled with the fire of an incredible love for Christ, she was cleansed from the greatest filth of sins by the most copious fountain of tears. For because she had perfectly grown warm with repentance, she began (so to speak) to revel, agitated by desire for Christ. For at once she let down her hair, and washing the holy feet with abundant tears, and wiping them with her own hair, she watered them with precious ointment. And these things indeed she did all outwardly; but the things she stirred up in the secret of her mind were much more fiery than these, and much greater, which God alone beheld."
AND KISSED HIS FEET — washed and wiped. The shameless kisses of her lovers she converted into chaste and suppliant kisses upon the feet of Christ, by this gesture seeking pardon and reconciliation for her sins; for the kiss is the symbol of this, as well as of love and charity, says St. Ambrose.
Mystically: "The two feet of Christ," says Blessed Peter Damian, serm. On Magdalene, "are mercy and judgment, to kiss one of which without the other is either rash security or a despair to be shunned." Publicly, in a public banquet, before all the guests, Magdalene performed these acts of penitence, so that by a public penitence she might make satisfaction for the public scandal which her luxury had given, and abolish it.
AND ANOINTED THEM WITH OINTMENT. — The ancients formerly used ointments at banquets, that is, fragrant waters or liquids, both for elegance and for fragrance, as I have shown at Ecclus. IX, 10; and this was customarily done by women, as is plain from I Kings VIII, 13. Magdalene rushed all the more boldly into the banquet, intending to do the very same in the house of Simon her friend, in order to show her ardent love toward Christ, says Titus. For, as St. Paulinus says, epist. 4 to Severus, p. 92, of St. Magdalene: "The Lord loved in her not the ointment, but the charity by which, modestly shameless and piously brazen, without fear of reproach or rebuff, she penetrated by that wantonly forceful eagerness — by which the kingdom of heaven is taken by storm — into the house of the Pharisee, a stranger to her, uninvited; and, hungering for the heavenly Word alone, she ran not to His goods but to His feet; and prostrated herself there on the ground; she poured out streams of tears; with her once curling hair she wiped Christ's foot-soil; she offered kisses with weeping, sacrificed with ointment, and made oblation with affection. For the sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit. By offering this to God she merited not only the remission of her offenses, but also the glory of preaching with the Gospel of His name." And lower down: "Loving Him, she loved herself." And concluding, p. 105: "Therefore, he says, let us love Him whom to love is a duty; let us kiss Him whom to kiss is chastity; let us be joined to Him to whom to be wedded is virginity; let us be subject to Him under whom to lie is to stand above the world; for His sake let us be cast down, to whom to fall is resurrection; let us die together with Him in whom is life, in whom even the dead live: who in turn deigns to be unto us whatever we shall be unto Him, His little servants," etc.
Mystically: Blessed Damian, serm. On St. Magdalene, says that this ointment is made from our sins: "She herself, he says, pounded in the little mortar of penitence with the pestle of maceration, and besprinkled with the oil of discretion, with the fire of sorrow placed beneath, and cooked in the cauldron of discipline, presents an ointment precious and acceptable to the feet of the Savior." And he adds that this ointment is fourfold: first, of devotion; secondly, of virtues mingled with one another; thirdly, of piety; fourthly, of mercy.
Note here in Magdalene a singular and heroic mirror of penitence and of the other virtues. First, her singular faith, by which she believed that Christ had the power of remitting sins, even though the Scribes and Pharisees obstinately denied it, and no Prophet had hitherto been granted this power by God: indeed, if we trust St. Augustine, homil. 33 among the 50, she believed Christ to be more than man, namely God-man; for she believed that mere man could not remit sins of himself and authoritatively, as Christ was doing, but that this belongs to God alone: therefore Christ is God. She conceived this faith partly from the miracles of Christ and the common report that He was the Messiah, and partly and chiefly from the illumination and instinct of God. So Euthymius and Franciscus Lucas here, and St. Augustine, in the place already cited: "She, he says, who believed that her sins were forgiven her by Christ, believed Christ to be not only man, but also God." Whence Augustine adds: "She came to the Lord unclean, that she might return clean; she came sick, that she might return healed; she came confessing, that she might return professing."
Secondly, her admirable religion and devotion, by which, embracing the feet of Christ, she did not cease to bathe them with tears, to wipe them, and to kiss them, until she heard from Christ: "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace."
Thirdly, her remarkable wisdom, by which she begged pardon of her crimes from Christ, not with her voice, but with her heart and inmost desires and sighs.
Fourthly, the greatness of her penitence, by which, as if shameless and brazen, she broke into the public banquet, washed and fed Him, and made the feet themselves into her sanctuary (so to speak) and altar. Upon them she offered libation with weeping, made oblation with ointment, sacrificed with affection; and then dedicated her whole life and all her years until death to Christ and to penitence, and led an austere life for thirty years in the desert in continual tears, fasts, and prayers. Read of her in Surius, July 22: whence Petrarch sings of her:
For hunger, cold, and the hard rocks for her bed, / Love made sweet, and hope fixed in her deep heart.
He adds the angelic reward:
Here, unseen by the eyes of men, surrounded by angelic throngs, / And borne up through the seven hours of the day, / Thou wast worthy, while still in the prison of the body, / To hear the heavenly choirs singing their alternate songs.
Finally, Christ revealed to St. Bridget, bk. I of the Revelations, cap. CVIII, that three saints had pleased Him above the rest, namely the Blessed Virgin, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene, of whom He speaks thus: "When Mary Magdalene was converted, the demons said: How shall we lead her back? for we have lost a fat prey: for she so washes herself with the waters of her tears that we do not dare to fix our gaze upon her; she so covers herself with good works that nothing of stain approaches her; she is so fervent and warm in the service of God and in sanctity, that we do not dare to draw near her."
Tropologically: St. Ambrose, bk. On Tobias, cap. XXII: "She poured oil, he says, on His feet, herself bestowing mercy on the poor. These are the feet of Christ; in these Christ walks more innocently."
Verse 39: If This Man Were a Prophet
AND THE PHARISEE WHO HAD INVITED HIM, SEEING IT, SPOKE WITHIN HIMSELF, SAYING: IF THIS MAN WERE A PROPHET, HE WOULD KNOW WHO AND WHAT MANNER OF WOMAN THIS IS WHO TOUCHES HIM, FOR SHE IS A SINNER. — and therefore it is not fitting that an unclean woman should touch a clean Prophet; wherefore Jesus does not seem to be a Prophet, inasmuch as He allows Himself to be touched by such an unclean and infamous harlot. For this Pharisee, says St. Augustine, serm. 23 among the 50, was of that race of proud men, of whom Isaiah, cap. LXV, said: "Depart far from me, touch me not, for I am clean." This was the false and erroneous syllogism of Simon. For it was fitting that the unclean should touch Christ, that they might be cleansed by Him. For He had come into the world for this very purpose, that He might be a Physician touching and healing all diseases both of soul and of body. "He said this, says Euthymius, having taken offense, not knowing that, although He was God, He had become Man for the sake of sinners." Again, Magdalene was now no longer unclean, but cleansed and sanctified through contrition, as Christ teaches in what follows. Simon was deceived in judging from the past, not from the present, who and what manner of person Magdalene now was. For she was the same, yet another: another, yet herself, as Chrysologus says, serm. 74 and 75. Wherefore the humble and penitent Magdalene was cleaner and holier than the impure and proud Pharisee, who had committed sins like Magdalene's, and perhaps graver, or by reason of his pride could easily commit them, as St. Augustine teaches in the place already cited. Wherefore in many things this Pharisee was at fault. Toletus here, note 66, lists eight of his errors and offenses.
Hence tropologically St. Gregory gathers, hom. 33, saying: "Whence it is necessary that, when we behold any sinners, we first weep for ourselves in their calamity, because perhaps in similar things we have either fallen, or can fall, if we have not yet fallen; and although the censure of teaching ought always to pursue vices with the strength of discipline, yet we must carefully discern, because we owe strictness to vices, but compassion to nature. For if the sinner must be struck, the neighbor must be nourished."
Verse 40: Simon, I Have Something to Say to Thee
AND JESUS ANSWERING (He who by the keenness of His mind and of His divine spirit foresaw the secret thoughts of the heart and the murmurings of the Pharisee), SAID TO HIM: SIMON, I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO THEE. AND HE SAID: MASTER, SAY ON. — "Simon." Many think this Simon to be another from Simon the Leper, who invited Christ six days before the Passion in Bethany, where Magdalene anointed Christ again, John XII, 2; Matt. XXVI, 6; because this Simon dwelt in Galilee, but the Leper in Judaea, namely in Bethany. So thinks St. Augustine, bk. II On the Agreement of the Evangelists, cap. LXXIX; Theophylact, Bede, and others. Others would have it that he is one and the same Simon, and this is conjectured from the same name of Simon, from the same familiarity with Jesus and Magdalene, and from the similar invitation and anointing. For it seems that this Simon, having been converted by Christ, when Christ migrated from Galilee to Judaea, Matt. XIX, 1, likewise migrated thither, and chose his house in Bethany, near Magdalene whom he knew, so that he might enjoy Christ's presence and teaching together with her.
I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO THEE. — Behold how prudently and gently Christ corrects Simon with these soft but pregnant words, first capturing Simon's goodwill and arousing his attention: "For He desired to heal him also, lest He should eat with him for nothing," says St. Augustine in the place cited; and in truth He seems to have healed him, as Luke here tacitly hints. Whence Simon modestly and quietly answered Christ: "Master, say on," as if to say: I, as a disciple, will gratefully and willingly receive your words as those of my master.
Verse 41: A Certain Creditor Had Two Debtors
THERE WAS A CERTAIN CREDITOR WHO HAD TWO DEBTORS: ONE OWED FIVE HUNDRED DENARII, AND THE OTHER FIFTY. — "Debtors, who, as St. Ambrose says, were liable to a heavenly creditor (God), to whom we owe not material money, but the registers of merits, the coinage of virtues:" the debts therefore are sins, by which we inflict a most grievous injury upon God, for which we ought to make satisfaction to Him, but cannot, and are therefore subject to Gehenna and eternal fire. "Foeneratori," that is, "creditor," as the Syriac renders it: for the Greek δανειστής corresponds to the Hebrew נשה (nosheh), and signifies one who lends, whether gratuitously or at interest. Wherefore it is better to take "foenerator" here as "lender" or "creditor"; for thus the word is taken in Deut. XV, 6, and XXVIII, 12; Ecclus. XXIX, 1 and 2.
ONE OWED FIVE HUNDRED DENARII, AND THE OTHER FIFTY. — A denarius is a julius, or Spanish royal, so called because it contains ten small asses, that is, ten Roman baiocchi, or ten Belgian half-stuvers; wherefore the denarius was worth five stuvers. Therefore 50 denarii make five Roman aurei, and 500 denarii make 50 Roman aurei. In this parable Christ by the two debtors denotes Simon his host and Magdalene, and He does this elegantly and paradigmatically for the sake of courtesy, lest, if He had named Simon at once, He should offend and strike him down. This is plain from what follows, where by three antitheses He compares Magdalene with Simon, and prefers her to Simon and absolves her. Magdalene therefore owed 500 denarii, because she esteemed herself a great sinner and esteemed that she owed God much more on account of her sins than Simon owed; and therefore she loved more, and showed greater signs of love, that she might merit to receive from Him the remission of greater crimes. Simon owed 50 denarii, that is, esteemed that he had sinned only a little and venially, and owed God little, because he thought himself just, and therefore believed that he needed little or no contrition.
But, as St. Augustine rightly notes in the place cited, on this very account he ought to have confessed himself equally or more a debtor to God (who preserved him from committing greater crimes). Hear St. Augustine: "You were not an adulterer (O Simon, as Magdalene was) in that past life of yours full of ignorances. This is what your God says to you: I governed you for Myself, I kept you for Myself, that you might not commit adultery. The tempter was lacking; and that the tempter should be lacking, I myself did this. Place and time were lacking; and that these should be lacking, I myself did this. The tempter was present; the place was not lacking, the time was not lacking; that you should not consent, I myself terrified you. Acknowledge therefore the grace of Him to whom you owe even what you have not committed. He owes me what was done, and you have seen forgiven; you also owe me what you have not committed. For there is no sin that one man has committed, that another man could not commit, if the Ruler by whom man was made should be lacking."
Verse 42: He Forgave Both
AND WHEN THEY HAD NO MEANS OF REPAYING, HE FORGAVE (remitted the debt) BOTH. WHO THEREFORE LOVES HIM (the lender, that is, the creditor, namely God: for to Him as creditor the sinner is debtor) MORE? — that is, will be judged to love more, or is wont to love more, and strives to win him over with more services. A similar Hebraism is frequent elsewhere, as in Amos V, 13: "Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time," that is, did keep silence, or had to keep silence. The sense is, as if to say: Just as he who, owing more to his creditor, has received remission of more from him, will commonly be judged by prudent men to have received this greater remission from the creditor because he has loved him more and shown him more services and signs of goodwill, on account of which the creditor in turn has remitted and forgiven him more. For thus debtors who owe much to their creditors are wont to render to them greater services and homage, that they may earn from them, and as it were beg, the remission of such great debts, or the lessening of them, or the prolongation of the time appointed for payment. In like manner, then, you, O Simon, ought prudently to judge that Magdalene has loved Me, the Prophet and Messiah, the Son of God, more than you have loved Me; for, as you have seen, she has shown to Me greater signs of love and of every service and homage than you have; wherefore by these she has stirred Me to forgive her more and greater sins than to you. For the greater love of the debtor is the cause of the greater forgiveness of the creditor; for it provokes and draws it out. Whence I aptly infer, with regard to the proposed parable, and say: "Many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much." Wherefore Magdalene is now no longer a sinner, nor unworthy of the touch of My feet, as you reckon, O Simon, but is holier than you and more worthy of My touch. This sense the sequence and the apodosis (the rendering and balanced application of the parable) require, namely that it be signified that greater love is the cause of the greater remission of greater debts, that is, of offenses. So St. Augustine, hom. 23 among the 50. Therefore the word "diligit" ("loves") signifies present and past, as if to say: She has loved Me more and loves Me more, and therefore I forgive her more. Whence the Arabic translates: which therefore of these two debtors is the greater lover of him? So Maldonatus, who expressly says that the present here is put, by a common idiom, for the past, namely "diligit" for "dilexit;" indeed Christ Himself so interprets it at v. 47, saying: "Because she has loved much." Secondly, however, if you prefer to take "diligit," or, as it is in Greek, ἀγαπήσει, that is, "will love," simply for the future, as if to say: Which of these debtors will hereafter love him more? — I say this is the inverse argument, drawn from effect to a naturally connected cause; as if to say: Just as that debtor loved the creditor much, because he had already remitted many debts to him (for the remission of more debts requires a greater gratitude and love in the debtor toward the creditor; for the debtor to whom the creditor has remitted much is constrained by gratitude to love the creditor in return more than the one to whom he has remitted little); so on the contrary, I, O Simon, remit to Magdalene many offenses as it were debts, because she has loved Me much. As if to say: The remission of the debt and, in turn, the love of the debtor toward the creditor who remits the debt are connected with each other; and as the creditor's remission begets the debtor's love, so in turn the debtor's love begets the creditor's remission. For the creditor's love in remitting provokes the debtor's love in obeying, and the other way around: the debtor's love provokes the creditor's love and remission; and both are to be seen in Magdalene who loves and in Christ who remits her offenses. So Lyranus, Franciscus Lucas, and others. Otherwise from this parable of debtors the conclusion ought plainly to have been drawn the other way: Just as the creditor by remitting more to the debtor causes the latter to love him more thereafter, so I Christ, by remitting more to Magdalene, cause her hereafter to love Me more. But Christ chose to invert the parable in the way just said, to show that Magdalene's sins were not only forgiven, but also the manner and way in which they were forgiven, namely through love, so that we may imitate her and through fervent love merit from God the indulgence of our sins.
In a similar way Christ inverts the parable of the Samaritan, chap. X, v. 36. For when asked who was a neighbor, He pointed to the Samaritan who had pity on the wounded man, saying: "Which of these three seems to you to be a neighbor?" whereas, directly to the parable, He should have said: That wounded man is the neighbor, to whom mercy is to be shown; but He preferred to name the Samaritan, in order to show in him as one having mercy what mercy we ought to show to our neighbors. For from one the other is understood; namely from the neighbor showing mercy is understood the neighbor in misery: for "neighbor" is a relative term; for the neighbor of a neighbor is a neighbor. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The Samaritan truly conducted himself as the neighbor of the wounded man; therefore imitate the Samaritan, that you may have mercy on your wretched neighbor: thus you will truly show yourself his neighbor. Whence concluding the parable, Christ adds: "Go, and do thou in like manner." In the same way He here concludes: "Many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much: but to whom less is forgiven, the same loves less."
St. Ambrose, bk. On Tobias, cap. XXII, explains this otherwise, namely that Christ first remitted Magdalene's sins, and that she afterwards was grateful to Christ and loved Him the more, and that therefore Christ, foreseeing this gratitude and love of hers, first of all remitted her sins. Otherwise also St. Gregory, bk. V, epist. 22, and from him Toletus, as if to say: A debtor to whom more of his debt is remitted by the creditor ought to be, and is wont to be, grateful to the creditor and to love him more. Since therefore you, O Simon, see in Magdalene greater signs of love toward Me in washing, wiping, kissing, and anointing My feet, you ought from this to gather that I have remitted to her many sins. For from the effect the cause is gathered; namely, from love, the remission of debts. See therefore how rashly you have judged this woman to be a sinner and unworthy of My touch, since from her wonderful gratitude and love you ought to have inferred that many sins, that is, all, had been forgiven her by Me. But this sense strains that of v. 47: "Many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much." For the word "quoniam" ("for") signifies that love was the cause of the remission of sins, not the effect: of which more at v. 47.
Verse 43: Thou Hast Judged Rightly
SIMON ANSWERING SAID: I SUPPOSE THAT (i.e. that) HE TO WHOM HE FORGAVE MORE (that is, to whom he remitted more of the debt — namely, that he loves his creditor in the manner just explained). Christ extorts this answer from Simon's own mouth, that He may catch and ensnare him by it. Whence follows: AND HE SAID TO HIM: THOU HAST JUDGED RIGHTLY. — Christ praises Simon's answer, that the more easily he may admit the rebuke and correction that Christ gives him from it.
Verse 44: Seest Thou This Woman?
AND TURNING TO THE WOMAN, HE SAID TO SIMON: SEEST THOU THIS WOMAN? — "Turning." For Magdalene was behind Christ, nor did she dare, from confusion at her crimes, to appear before His face. Wherefore Christ turned His face to her, so penitent, and looked upon her with the kindly eyes of grace, and preferred her to Simon His host. SEEST THOU THIS WOMAN? — now no longer a sinner, as you, O Simon, suppose, but a penitent, justified, and holy.
I ENTERED INTO THY HOUSE, THOU GAVEST ME NO WATER FOR MY FEET: BUT SHE HATH BATHED MY FEET WITH HER TEARS, AND WIPED THEM WITH HER HAIRS. — It was customary for the feet of guests at the table to be washed before the meal, because of old men went about with bare feet: they washed them therefore in order to wipe off both the dirt and the weariness, that they might not soil the dining-couches on which they were about to recline. So Abraham washed the feet of the angels, whom he reckoned strangers, Gen. XVIII, 4; and Lot, Gen. XIX, 2; and others, Judg. XIX. Whence Paul also judges that the widow Deaconess to be chosen is one who has "washed the feet of the saints," 1 Tim. V, 10. But Christ here came from outside and was a guest; wherefore Simon ought to have taken care to have His feet washed. Christ therefore taxes his neglect and small love, that He may prefer Magdalene's love to his, inasmuch as she washed Christ's feet not with water but with her tears, and wiped them not with a linen cloth but with her own hair, and was not afraid to soil them. For, as Titus says: "Water can be procured with little trouble, but so great a flood of tears is by no means easy to procure."
Verse 45: She Has Not Ceased to Kiss My Feet
THOU GAVEST ME NO KISS: BUT SHE, FROM THE TIME I CAME IN, HAS NOT CEASED TO KISS MY FEET. — And that "with all fear and reverence," says Titus. They used to receive their guests and dinner-companions with a kiss, in token of love and goodwill, to show that they were welcome to them. Whence the Belgians and other nations still do this. But Simon, little courteous toward Christ, omitted the kiss. The sense is, as if to say: It was your part, O Simon, to receive Me, your guest, with a kiss on the face according to custom; therefore your rusticity has been made up for and outdone by the courteous and loving Magdalene, who kissed not My face but My feet, and that not once, nor with a single kiss, but with frequent and continuous kisses from the beginning of her entrance into the house until now.
Verse 46: She Has Anointed My Feet with Ointment
THOU DIDST NOT ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL: BUT SHE WITH OINTMENT HATH ANOINTED MY FEET. — They used to pour fragrant liquids on the hands and heads of their dinner-companions, and the dearer the guests were to the host and the higher in his esteem, the more precious were the liquids he applied to them. The sense, then, is, as if to say: You, O Simon, have not anointed My face even with cheap and common oil; but Magdalene with precious ointment has anointed My feet. See, then, how she surpasses you in service and in charity: "For the Lord, says Ambrose, loved not the ointment, but the charity; received the faith; approved the humility." Whence Christ concludes:
Verse 47: Her Many Sins Are Forgiven, Because She Has Loved Much
WHEREFORE I SAY TO THEE: HER MANY SINS ARE FORGIVEN HER, BECAUSE SHE HAS LOVED MUCH. — In Greek it is ἀφέωνται, that is, "they have been remitted," in the past tense; and so the Syriac and Arabic. The question is asked: When were Magdalene's sins forgiven? Franciscus Lucas, first, holds that they were forgiven in the next verse, when shortly after Christ said to her: "Thy sins are forgiven thee." What He therefore says here, "they are forgiven," he explains thus, as if to say: They are right now to be forgiven. Secondly, others judge that her sins were forgiven in this very verse, for that is what "remittuntur" signifies; for it was fitting that none but Christ should absolve her, and should pronounce the sentence of absolution upon her with the living voice in Simon's presence. Thirdly, it seems more probable that her sins had been forgiven a little before, namely when she had conceived perfect sorrow for her sins, by the force of which she then performed these acts of washing, wiping, kissing, and anointing the feet of Christ; for this is what the Greek ἀφέωνται means, namely "they have been forgiven," in the past. The reason is that Magdalene, whom God made an exemplar of penitence, by His powerful grace illuminating and impelling her, conceived perfect sorrow flowing from love of God above all things. For God illuminated her mind, that she might clearly see the gravity of her sins and how greatly she had offended the majesty and goodness of God by them; and He impelled her will to love God above all things, and therefore to detest all her sins to the highest degree, so that God might be loved above all things and the remission of sins might follow, as if to say: For this reason many, that is all, of Magdalene's sins are forgiven, because she herself loved God supremely, and out of this supreme love of God she grieved supremely for her sins and fully detested them. "For charity is the death of crimes, the life of virtues," says St. Augustine, in his treatise On the Praises of Charity. Hence rightly almost all theologians, with St. Augustine in homily 23 of the 50, teach from this passage that an act of perfect contrition, which includes love of God above all things, by nature indeed precedes the remission of sins and justification; but in the same instant of time, as the ultimate disposition leading to it, brings it about: just as heat, say at degree eight, in wood is as it were the ultimate disposition that introduces into the wood the form of fire. Thus the Council of Trent, session XIV, chapter IV, distinguishing attrition (which is conceived from fear of hell and punishment) from contrition (which is perfected by charity), teaches that the latter together with the Sacrament in desire reconciles the sinner to God, but the former by no means does so, according to the saying: "A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise," Psalm 50. Hence St. Gregory, homily 33, expounds it thus: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much," as if he were saying: "She has clearly burned away the rust of sin, because she burns strongly with the fire of love. For the rust of sin is consumed all the more, the more the sinner's heart is set ablaze by the great fire of charity." See Suarez, Part III, Question 85, article 1, disputation 4, section 7. Truly St. Bernard, epistle 107: "Willingly," he says, "the love of God follows our love, which He has prevented (gone before). For how should He be reluctant to love in return those whom He loved while they were not yet loving Him?"
Our Translator, however, renders it "are forgiven" in the present tense, in the same sense in which the priest in the Sacrament of penance absolves a penitent sinner, even one perfectly contrite and therefore already justified, from his sins, saying: "I absolve you." For so far as he can on his part, he absolves him, even though by the power of contrition he is already absolved: for this absolution is so effective that, if it were to find any sin in the one confessing, it would plainly take it away and absolve him. Add that the same sin can be pardoned several times, especially if the penitent out of humility and sorrow confesses it repeatedly, submits it to the keys of the Church, and seeks its remission. Hence Christ here for the third time forgives Magdalene's sins. Therefore He remitted to her not only all guilt, but also every punishment due to that guilt, and granted her a full indulgence of all things, as it were a first jubilee. This is what the angel said to a certain Bishop in the Lives of the Fathers, book VI, n. 16: "Penitence and confession bring penitents back into the divine number." And Barlaam to Josaphat, in Damascene's History, chapter XI: "The tears of a penitent obtain the name of baptism." And Palladius, in the Lausiac History, chapter 140, narrates that a certain virgin who had fallen "pleased God more in penance than in virginity." See St. Jerome's On the Penitence of Fabiola, and Climacus, step 5 On Penitence.
BECAUSE SHE LOVED MUCH. — Toletus and several others hold that "because" signifies the cause not of the remission of sins, but of the proof that those sins have already been remitted to her, as if to say: From this, O Simon, observe and recognize that Magdalene's sins are already forgiven, because she shows me these tokens of supreme love and gratitude, namely, in order that she may show herself grateful to me for having previously pardoned her sins. But this explanation strains the word "because," first because Magdalene, although penitent and contrite, did not yet know that her sins were forgiven her until she heard from Christ: "Your sins are forgiven"; therefore she could not have produced these tokens of love out of gratitude, that is, in order to show herself grateful to Christ who had forgiven them, because, as I said, she still did not know that Christ had forgiven them. Secondly, because Christ does not say: Recognize, O Simon, that Magdalene's sins are forgiven from the fact that she loves me, that is, shows such great signs of love; but on the contrary He says: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much," that is, her sins are forgiven her for this reason, because she loves me supremely, and therefore she grieves supremely for the sins by which she offended me. This is plainly what the words mean.
I say therefore that "because" signifies the cause of the remission of sins, as if to say: For this reason many, that is all, of Magdalene's sins are forgiven, because she herself loved God supremely. This love of God, and grief for her sins, stirred her to produce these public signs of repentance, without any blush or shame at the public banquet of Simon. And so, before Christ said to her: "Your sins are forgiven," her sins had already been forgiven by force of perfect contrition formed by charity.
BUT TO WHOM LESS IS FORGIVEN, HE LOVES LESS. — This portion concerns Simon, to whom, since he was not repentant for his sins nor loving God, nothing was forgiven. Hence the Arabic version renders it: "to whom little is forgiven, loves little," as if to say: Just as to Magdalene, who loved me, God, much, many, that is all sins, have been forgiven by me; so to you, O Simon, who love me, God, little or nothing out of true charity, little or nothing has been forgiven by me. For the sake of modesty and civility He says "little" or "less," though He could absolutely have said "nothing." Moreover, that less is forgiven to one who loves less is to be understood according to the order of remission established by God, who has decreed that one mortal sin, even the smallest, cannot be remitted without the others, but whenever one is remitted, all the rest are remitted as to guilt, though according to the degrees of love more or less of the punishment is remitted, according as one loves more or less. Secondly, he who in no way, or only with natural love, loves God, loves God less than he who loves the same with true and supernatural charity; and accordingly to the latter many things, that is all things, are forgiven; to the former less, because nothing is forgiven: for example, to Magdalene all things, to Simon nothing; because Simon was not thinking about his sins, nor was he contrite over them, nor was he arranging this banquet in order to obtain remission from Christ to be obtained; but Magdalene was most vehemently contrite, and was directing all these acts of repentance to obtaining forgiveness. For Christ wished to apply this paradigm and this parable of the two debtors and the creditor in some way to the remission of the sins of Magdalene and Simon. But the parable is not in every respect similar to the case of the latter, but only in the point I mentioned. And here Christ chiefly considers why He has forgiven Magdalene many things, that is, all things, both as to guilt and punishment, and not the other point, namely why He has forgiven Simon less. Therefore He added this as a kind of emblem and supplement to the parable, not wishing it to be exactly fitted to the matter signified by the parable. Add: Simon's love was the dinner he was offering to Christ, by which he merited, if he was in God's grace, that some venial sins would be forgiven him; but this love of God was less, while greater was the love of Magdalene who washed, kissed, and anointed Christ's feet with her tears, and therefore she obtained from Christ the forgiveness of all her mortal sins. St. Augustine adds that this was said by way of concession according to the mindset of the Pharisee, who esteemed himself just, and therefore that he owed God little or nothing. "This was said," he says, "on account of that Pharisee, who thought he had either no sins or few: for he would not have invited the Lord unless he had loved Him somewhat." And afterwards: "O Pharisee, you love little because you suppose that little is forgiven you: not because little is forgiven, but because you think that what is forgiven is little."
Toletus adds that less was forgiven to Simon, not because any sin was remitted to him, but because he had been preserved by Christ's grace from committing some sin: for he who had invited Christ did not pursue Christ with hatred, as the other Pharisees did. Hence it is likely that this Simon was at last fully converted to Christ. Suarez expounds these words of Christ at length and exactly in Part III, On Grace, book VIII, chapter X.
Verse 48: Thy Sins Are Forgiven Thee
AND HE SAID TO HER: YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN. — Franciscus Lucas thinks that here Magdalene's sins were first pardoned by Christ. But I have shown in the preceding verse that they had already previously been forgiven her through contrition. Therefore what Christ there said to Simon, that Magdalene's sins were forgiven, He now says to Magdalene herself, having turned to her, both to console her in her weeping and to assure her of the remission, and also to confirm and uphold the remission already granted in the presence of Simon and the Pharisees, and to show that He has the power to remit sins authoritatively, and therefore that He is the Messiah and God; for He alone is the primary author of remission. So Euthymius.
Verse 49: Who Is This That Even Forgives Sins?
AND THEY THAT SAT AT TABLE WITH HIM BEGAN TO SAY WITHIN THEMSELVES (to think in their heart and mind, for they did not dare to express this thought of theirs in Jesus' presence, lest they be rebuked by Him just as Simon had been): WHO IS THIS THAT EVEN FORGIVES SINS? — as if to say: Is this the Messiah? Is He God? For He alone in His own right forgives sins. Hence Christ leaves them in their wonder and doubt, that they may go on to examine His doctrine, life, and miracles, and from them recognize that He Himself is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Verse 50: Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Safe; Go in Peace
AND HE SAID TO THE WOMAN: YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU SAFE: GO IN PEACE. — Faith not alone, as the Novatores (Protestants) would have it, but with the good works of penance (such as Magdalene here exercised toward Christ) and formed by charity. For a little before Christ attributed her forgiveness to her love, saying: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much." Faith therefore is here understood not as bare faith, but as faith working through charity and through the acts of contrition that here preceded.
HAS MADE YOU SAFE (free from sins, holy, and to be saved). — as if to say: Your faith formed by charity has placed you on the path of salvation, so that, if you persevere in it unto death, you will certainly come to salvation and eternal glory. For grace is the path to glory.
GO IN PEACE. — as if to say: Go secure, tranquil, joyful, and happy, you who hitherto, on account of the consciousness of your crimes, were sorrowful, sad, anxious, troubled, and unhappy: for your past sins, says Euthymius, will harm you no more, nor will they any longer gnaw at or lacerate your conscience. This is the fruit of penance, of the remission of sins, of a conscience purged from sins, just and holy: namely peace, serenity, cheerfulness, and the joy of the Holy Spirit, which far surpasses and transcends all the joys of the world, according to the words: "Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God," Romans 5:1. And: "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," Philippians 4:7. And: "A secure mind is like a continual feast," Proverbs 15:15. See what is said in those passages. Excellently does St. Bernard say in his sermon On St. Magdalene: "There is a joy," he says, "most firm by its continual delight, which the perfect soul promises itself from a secure conscience. For the mind, purely and closely cleansed from the sprinkling of this world, fixing the whole affection of its desire on the keenness of divine contemplation, rejoices joyfully in the Lord, and its soul exults in God its Savior. Such a soul scorns threats, knows no fear, eludes false hope, and free from all scandals, sleeps and rests in peace in self-same rest."
Furthermore, Christ here gave Magdalene perfect peace just as He gave her perfect salvation, "for God's works are perfect," Deuteronomy 32. Hence those whom Christ healed, He healed perfectly. He therefore, first, abolished from Magdalene's mind all the habits of vices, the memory of past shameful pleasures, inclinations to pride, luxury, and gluttony, the temptations of the flesh, and gave her mind full peace: secondly, He instilled in her perfect chastity, humility, and penitence; thirdly, a full contempt of all worldly things and a desire for heavenly things; fourthly, a most ardent love of Christ, so that she dedicated herself and all that was hers to Christ's service. On this account she immediately followed Christ everywhere on foot with great labor and eagerness as He continually went about the towns preaching; and she sustained Him together with the Apostles from her own resources: wholly intent on His preaching, she resigned the care of the household to her sister Martha. Hence she heard from Christ: "Mary has chosen for herself the best part, which shall not be taken from her forever," Luke chapter 11. Hence too she stood steadfastly by the cross of Christ, and saw Christ washing with His blood her sins which she herself had already washed with her tears. On this account she burned all the more in love for Him, and therefore withdrawing into the desert she gave herself entirely to contemplating His life, passion, and resurrection, and wholly absorbed in Christ she lived a life more heavenly than earthly. So full was the conversion of St. Paul, that immediately Christ infused into him all the virtues, not only Christian but also Apostolic, and that in a heroic degree, as I said on Acts 9. St. Cyprian, in book II, epistle 2 to Donatus, writes that he experienced a similar change of soul in baptism; and St. Augustine likewise in his conversion, in book IX of the Confessions, chapter I, and book VIII, chapter XI.
Wherefore tropologically Origen, in his notable homily On Mary Magdalene, says: "Let us follow this woman's affection, that we may attain to its effect: let each one weep before Jesus and faithfully seek Jesus, because He did not hide Himself from the sinful woman who sought Him. Learn, sinful man, from the sinful woman, whose sins were nevertheless forgiven her; learn to weep over God's absence and to consider His presence. Learn from Mary to love Jesus, to hope in Jesus, to investigate Jesus by seeking Him, to fear no adversity, to accept no consolation outside of Jesus, to despise all things for the sake of Jesus." See here how powerful grace is, as well as the love of Christ: how powerful love is, the emblem teaches in which Cupid is depicted sitting upon a lion and taming and ruling it,
I myself have seen one who could rein in the savage lion: / I have seen Love who alone could tame hearts. "Love conquers all things." See what is said on Canticles 8, on the words: "Love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell."