Sixth, because they preferred advantage to uprightness: Matthew chapter twenty-three: "Woe to you! who say: Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated. Fools and blind," etc.
57. (Vers. 31.). But the Lord said: To whom then shall I liken etc. After our Savior extolled the prerogative of virtue in John, here he rebukes the perfidy of unbelief in the people, whose unbelief he rebukes in four ways. For he charges them with infidelity, with hardness, with detraction, and with blasphemy.
First, therefore, as regards the mark of unbelief in thought, it is said: To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? — who, namely, refused to believe John on account of the blindness of their mind; of this, I say, unbelieving generation, according to that passage of Deuteronomy thirty-two: "For it is a perverse generation and unfaithful children"; and Mark nine: "O unbelieving generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you?" The Psalm: "Let them not become, like their fathers, a depraved and rebellious generation, a generation that did not direct its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God." And therefore Jeremiah two: "Consider earnestly whether a nation has changed its gods; but my people have changed their glory for an idol."
58. (Verse 32). Second, as regards the mark of hardness in affection, he adds: They are like children, where he adjoins a similitude through which their hardness is shown, because they were moved neither by the song of promises nor by the lamentation of threats, just as foolish children in the marketplace do not respond to others, neither to those singing nor to those lamenting — whom he introduces by way of similitude. For which reason he says: They are like children sitting in the marketplace. Likewise it befits them to be told and reproached with what children sitting in the marketplace reproach their companions with. For which reason he adds: Speaking to one another and saying: We piped to you, and you did not dance: because thus preachers can say to them: We piped to you, namely by sounding forth the promises of God; and you did not dance, by making progress. And the comparison is fitting, because the preacher is compared to a piper, according to that passage of Isaiah fifty-eight: "Cry out, do not cease; lift up your voice like a trumpet"; and Jeremiah four: "Sound the trumpet in Zion." Nor undeservedly, because, Ecclesiasticus forty, "the pipe and the psaltery make a sweet melody, and above both a pleasant tongue." At these things the hard of heart are not moved, nor do they dance through progress in good works; concerning which leaping, Malachi four: "You shall go forth and leap like a calf from the herd, and you shall tread down the wicked." And concerning this, Ambrose says: "It is an honorable dance, because the soul elevated by good works leaps for joy"; whence those who were not moved by the song of promises are hard of heart, but harder still in deed, because they were not moved even by the threats of punishments.
For which reason he adds: We have lamented to you, namely through the threat of punishment: Ezekiel 2: "There were written in the book lamentations and song and woe"; and Jeremiah 9: "Consider and call the mourning women, and let them take up a lamentation over us"; Joel 2: "Turn to me in fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments." And yet they were not moved by this: whence he adds: And you did not weep, through the compunction of penance: Isaiah 22: "The Lord will call to weeping and mourning"; and afterward: "And behold, joy and gladness, slaughtering rams," etc.: although the Apostle says in Romans 12: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
59. (Verse 33.). Third, as to the mark of detraction in speech, by which they turn good into evil, it is said: John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and thus in the way of severity and justice, as is said in Matthew 21: "John came to you in the way of justice." Whence, because he came with the austerity of penance, he came as one lamenting and groaning for the salvation of the people, according to that passage of Daniel 10: "I Daniel mourned for three weeks of days; I did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter my mouth." But nevertheless through him their hardness was not softened to weeping, but their malice was increased to detraction.
Whence it is added: And you say: He has a demon, because he is unlike the life of others. So they said to the Savior in John 10: "He has a demon: why do you listen to him?" Whence the works of power, which are from the Holy Spirit, they out of the wickedness of their heart attributed to a demon, as they said in Matthew 9: "By the prince of demons he casts out demons." And thus was verified in them that passage of Sirach 11: "He who turns good into evil lies in wait, and upon the elect he will place a stain." And therefore woe to them, according to that passage of Isaiah 5: "Woe to you who call good evil and evil good!"
60. (Verse 34.). Fourth, as to the mark of blasphemy in obstinacy against Christ himself, it is added: The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and thus in the way of clemency, as a physician and as a bridegroom, as above in chapter 5: "You cannot make the children of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them."
And yet they were not moved to rejoicing, but perverted to blaspheming; and therefore it is added: And you say: Behold, a man who is a glutton and a wine-drinker: they say this with regard to excess in food, as if to say: he cannot be wise, according to that passage of Proverbs 20: "Wine is a luxurious thing and drunkenness is tumultuous." A friend of tax collectors and sinners, with regard to the dishonor of his company, as if to say: he cannot be good, because, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus 13, "he who touches pitch will be defiled by it, and he who associates with the proud will put on pride." But wrongly, because in Jeremiah 15: "They shall be converted to you, and you shall not be converted to them"; and in Matthew 9: "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners," to repentance.
61. (Verse 35). And because the blasphemy of the Jews is aggravated by the true preaching of the Apostles, therefore it is added: And Wisdom is justified by all her children. For the Evangelist calls Christ Wisdom, according to that passage of First Corinthians 1: "Who was made unto us by God wisdom and righteousness." The children of this Wisdom are the Apostles, begotten through the word of this Wisdom and vivified through the Holy Spirit, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 4: "Wisdom breathes life into her children," that is, Christ into the Apostles. Whence also Peter said in John 6: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." These justified, that is, they esteemed Christ as righteous, inasmuch as they fulfilled his words through righteousness and obedience, according to that passage of Ecclesiasticus 3: "The children of wisdom are the assembly of the righteous, and their nation is obedience and love." By the example of these the Pharisees ought to have been moved, but on account of their obstinacy they remained in their dregs. Whence he said to them in Matthew 12: "If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges," because they are esteemed righteous by the Wisdom whom they justify, and the Pharisees are esteemed unjust and reprobate by the same Wisdom, whom they condemn on account of their obstinacy and blasphemy.
Thirdly, the sublimity of the Teacher is declared on account of the abundance of piety, in a threefold manner.
62. Now a certain Pharisee asked him. Above the Evangelist showed the sublimity of the Lord and Savior with regard to the excellence of power and with regard to the evidence of truth; here thirdly he shows with regard to the abundance of piety. Now this abundance of piety is shown in the Lord Jesus as great in the reception of the sinful woman, greater in his approbation, but greatest in his absolution. For he received her as she approached, commended her as she loved, and absolved her as she repented.
Therefore there is introduced first in this part the benign reception of the sinful woman approaching ; second, the more benign approbation of the one loving, at the place: And Jesus answering said to him, etc.; third, the most benign absolution of the penitent confessing, at the place: And he said to her: Your sins are forgiven.
As to the first, it should be noted that the reception of the sinful woman approaching the Lord is shown to be of great piety and mercy, both on account of the solemnity of the banquet in which he received her; and on account of the familiarity of the service to which he admitted her; and on account of the rashness of another's judgment, on account of which he did not dismiss her.
63. (Verse 36.) First, therefore, as to the solemnity of the banquet in which the sinful woman was piously received by the Lord, it is said: And a certain Pharisee asked him to eat with him: there is no doubt that he asked the Lord Jesus; and rightly so, according to the counsel and purpose of the Wise Man, Wisdom 8: "I proposed to bring her," that is, wisdom, Christ, "to live with me, knowing that she will share with me of her good things." But this Pharisee was no longer divided from the Lord, but rather united to him, and therefore he confidently asked the Lord and invited him to the banquet, according to that passage in Job 22: "If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up"; and it follows: "You shall pray to him, and he will hear you."
Which this man also obtained; whence it is added: And entering the house of the Pharisee, he reclined at table. He sat down to eat and thus fulfilled visibly what he spiritually promises in Apocalypse 3: "If anyone opens to me, I will enter to him and will sup with him, and he with me." Nor is this a wonder, because, as he himself says in Proverbs 8, "my delights are to be with the children of men." He says this with regard to the excess of charity, on account of which he was made man and willingly took upon himself and endured human needs among men, according to that passage in Baruch 3: "Afterwards he was seen upon earth and conversed with men." These things, therefore, were introduced on account of the solemnity of the banquet.
64. (Vers. 37.). As for the familiarity of service, to which she was admitted, it is added: And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, whose infamy was known to the whole city, such that what is said in Jeremiah 3 could be said to her: "You have had the forehead of a harlot, you refused to blush." This is that woman of whom it is said in Ecclesiastes 7: "I have found more bitter than death the woman who is a snare of hunters, and whose heart is a net"; and this, because she was a manifest fornicatress, as the Ravennan says that "her infamy had injured the whole city," such that what the Lord threatens through Amos to Amaziah the priest was fulfilled in her, Amos 7: "Your wife shall play the harlot in the city." And therefore she is rightly called a sinner both by reason of infamy and by reason of frequency, according to that saying in Sirach 3: "A wicked heart shall be laden with sorrows, and the sinner shall add sin to sin"; and Revelation, last chapter: "He who is filthy, let him be filthy still." Not only had she repeated her fault, but she had also sinned in diverse ways: whence upon that which is said in Mark, last chapter, that "Christ had cast seven demons out of Mary," Gregory says: "By the number seven, universality is rightly designated. Mary therefore had seven demons, because she was full of all vices."
65. Since therefore she was thus a sinner and unclean, she rightly ought to have been repelled, especially from the place of the banquet: and yet on account of the piety of the Lord, which she recognized, she was drawn: whence it is added: When she learned that Jesus had reclined at table in the house of the Pharisee, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment, that is, a box or vessel of alabaster, which "is of a certain kind of marble in which ointments are preserved uncorrupted." This the sinful woman brought to the house of the Pharisee, in which she knew Christ to be and by whom she was received, according to that saying of the Psalm: "God shall be known in her houses, when he shall receive her." She brought, I say, the ointment of humility, where Christ reclined, so that what is said in Song of Songs 1 might be fulfilled: "While the king was at his repose, my spikenard gave forth its fragrance." Moreover, these spices or ointments which Magdalene brought to Christ were prefigured in 2 Chronicles 9: "There were no spices such as these which the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon."
Or Magdalene brought ointments to the Savior in order to render familiar service, to which she was admitted, namely to render to Christ out of devotion what she had rendered to herself out of lust, that is, to wash, to wipe, to kiss, and to anoint the most sacred and most pure flesh of Christ, to which she was admitted on account of the affection of penitence and benevolence.
66. (Vers. 38.). As regards the affect of penance it is said: And standing behind at his feet, she began to wash his feet with tears, through sorrow. For in the penitent soul there ought to be shame, fear and sorrow. Shame was present, because she stood behind; fear, because at his feet; sorrow, because she washed with tears, as in that publican below in the eighteenth chapter: "But the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes toward heaven, but struck his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner"; Jeremiah thirty-one: "Convert me, O Lord, and I shall be converted, for you are my God. After you converted me, I did penance, and after you showed me, I struck my thigh. I was confounded and I blushed," etc.: where the three aforementioned things are touched upon. — But as regards the affect of benevolence it is added: And she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment, where the love of benevolence is shown to be pure, affectionate and devout. For charity ought to proceed "from a pure heart." Moreover, she cared more for the lowest part of his body than for the highest part of her own. For she no longer sought to please the world, but Christ alone, so that she could say that word from Song of Songs eight: "Who will give you to me as my brother, that I may find you alone outside and kiss you, and now no one may despise me"?
67. And in these two things consists perfect conversion to Christ. For just as in sin there is conversion through concupiscence and aversion through pride, so in the remedy there is aversion from sin through penance and conversion to God through benevolence. And truly this woman was perfectly converted and returned, because, as Gregory says, "as many delights as she had in herself, so many holocausts did she find from herself."
For sinful women are accustomed to offend most greatly in these four things, namely, in the wanton glances of the eyes; Isaiah three: "They went with wanton glances of the eyes"; the excesses of the hair: First Peter three: "Let there not be outward adornment of hair"; in the pleasures of kisses: Proverbs seven: "And having seized the young man, she kisses him"; the sweetness of ointments, as it is said in Esther two, that the king's maidens "were anointed with oil of myrrh," etc.
And therefore the perfect penitent employed her eyes for weeping, so that Christ could say to her that word from Fourth Kings twenty: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tear"; her hair for wiping, so that it could be said to her from Song of Songs four: "You have wounded my heart with one hair of your neck"; her mouth for kissing, so that Christ could say to her from Song of Songs four: "Your lips are a dripping honeycomb"; her ointments she employed for anointing, so that it could be said to her: "We shall run after the fragrance of your ointments."
68. (Vers. 39.). Third, regarding the rashness of another's judgment, on account of which she was not repulsed, he says: Now when the Pharisee who had invited him, namely to the banquet, saw, I say, with an eye not simple but evil, according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus thirty-one: "Remember that an evil eye is wicked. What has been created more wicked than the eye?" And truly evil, because, according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus eleven, "turning good things into evil, he lies in wait, and upon the elect he will impose a stain." And therefore the banquet of such persons is not much to be accepted, according to that saying of Proverbs twenty-three: "Do not eat with an envious man, nor desire his foods, because like a soothsayer and a diviner he estimates what he does not know. Eat and drink, he will say to you, and his mind is not with you." And such was this Pharisee; which is evident from what follows: He said within himself, namely thinking as a hypocrite, of whom Job fifteen says: "His belly prepares deceits."
Whence follows the judgment: This man, if he were a Prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who touches him. And thus he judged him not to be a Prophet, but an ignorant man, saying in his heart: "We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a Prophet, and he will know no more." But to this one can be said that word of Job twenty-two: "Do you not think that God is higher than heaven and is elevated above the summit of the stars? And you say: What indeed does God know? And as if through darkness he judges." But certainly he himself "knows the things constituted in darkness, and light is with him," as is said in Daniel two.