69. And note that in this way from the true he was falling into the false. For it is manifest that God and the divine man knows hidden things not only of the good but also of the evil; Proverbs fifteen: "The eyes of the Lord in every place behold the good and the evil." But in this he erred, because he believed Christ to be ignorant of this, while he allowed himself to be touched by a sinful woman. Whence he also judged badly concerning her; on account of which he adds: Because she is a sinner, as if to say: she should not be admitted but repelled. He was of those of whom Isaiah sixty-five says: "Who say: Depart from us and do not approach, because you are unclean." So also the other Pharisee said of the publican below in the eighteenth chapter: "God, I give you thanks that I am not like the rest of men, as also this publican." And he judged badly, and yet Christ on account of his evil judgment did not cease to show mercy; concerning which above in the fifth chapter he said to the Pharisees: "They who are well do not need a physician, but they who are ill. For I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance."
Great therefore was the mercy of Christ shown in the reception of the sinful woman approaching to touch Christ amid the feasting of the diners and the cunning of those judging. In this is simultaneously commended Christ's clemency and the sinful woman's penitence. Whence Gregory: "When I think of Mary's penitence, I would rather weep than say anything. For whose heart, even if of stone, would these tears of this sinful woman not soften to the example of repenting? She entered upon those dining, amid the feast she poured out tears: what then do we marvel at? Mary coming, or the Lord receiving her? Shall I say receiving, or drawing? But better receiving and drawing, because surely he who through gentleness received her outwardly, through mercy drew her inwardly."
70. And here it is to be noted morally that in these six things which are said of this penitent sinful woman, namely that she stood behind and lay at his feet, bathed with tears, wiped with her hair, and kissed and anointed: those things are understood which ought to be in a true penitent, namely the shame of blushing, which is noted when it says standing behind: below in the eighteenth chapter: "The publican standing afar off."
The fear of reverence, which is noted there: At his feet: Psalm: "Adore his footstool, for it is holy." — The sorrow of penitence: She began to bathe his feet with tears; Lamentations 2: "Pour down tears like a torrent."
The brightness of purity: She wiped with her hair: Isaiah 1: "Wash yourselves, be clean, put away evil."
The ardor of benevolence: She kissed his feet; and here: "You gave me no kiss," etc., up to: "Because she loved much."
The sweetness of interior devotion: And she anointed with ointment; Song of Songs 1: "Your breasts are better than wine, fragrant with the finest ointments." Good is the ointment of compunction, better that of compassion, but best that of devotion: first the feet, second the body, but third the head is anointed. And therefore the Magdalene is read to have come three times to anoint the Lord: here, and in John 12, and in Matthew 26, and in Mark 16.
71. (Verse 40). And Jesus answering said, etc. After the kind reception of the one approaching, here is added the still kinder approbation of the one loving. The Lord approves this loving sinful woman and her love, first by seeking out a general judgment; second by taking up a special proposition, there: And turning to the woman, etc.; and third by concluding the principal intent, there: Wherefore I say to you: Her sins are forgiven, etc. — In seeking out the general judgment, he proceeds in this order. For he arouses the Pharisee's attention, introduces the question, and approves the response.
First, therefore, he arouses the attention of the Pharisee, so that he may be recalled from falsehood, when he says: Jesus answering said to him: Simon, I have something to say to you: by which he rouses him to pay attention. And note that he is said to answer the Pharisee, although it is not said that he had asked anything of Christ, so that it may be shown that he himself was hearing his thoughts, so that his judgment, by which he believed Christ to be ignorant, might be refuted, according to what is said in the Psalm: "Understand, you senseless among the people, and you fools, at length be wise. He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? Or he who formed the eye, shall he not observe"? In this, that he addresses him as if answering, he arouses him to consider the wisdom of Christ; but in this, that he promises he will say something, he arouses him to receive the teaching, just as he also said to the disciples in John chapter sixteen: "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."
And since he effectively aroused him, therefore his attentiveness is added, when it is said: And he said: Master, speak. In which response he acknowledges knowledge and seeks teaching, according to the counsel of the wise man, Sirach chapter six: "Son, if you attend to me, you will learn wisdom, and if you apply your mind, you will be wise; if you incline your ear, you will receive instruction, and if you love to listen, you will be wise." And it follows after: "And if you see a man of understanding, go to him early." This is Christ the Lord, whom he rightly calls Master, according to that passage in Matthew chapter twenty-three: "One is your Master, Christ"; and John chapter thirteen: "You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am."
72. (Verse 41). Second, he presents a question to the Pharisee, so that he may be directed to the truth, when it is added: Two debtors owed a certain creditor, etc.
He proposes the case in general terms, understanding by these debtors, and giving to be understood thereby, sinners, who are bound by great debts, according to that passage in Matthew chapter six: "Forgive us our debts," that is, our sins, "as we also forgive our debtors," etc. By the creditor we understand Christ, according to that passage in Matthew chapter twenty-five: "You wicked and slothful servant, ought you not to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I would have exacted what is mine with interest?"
And because not all sin equally nor are equally obligated, therefore it is added: One owed five hundred denarii: in which is shown the full obligation on account of the fivefold transgression of evangelical perfection, for completeness is understood by the hundred. And the other fifty: this is said with regard to the half-full obligation, which consists in the fivefold transgression of the Decalogue itself.
73. (Vers. 42.). But because God has mercy on every kind of sinner who turns to him, therefore it is added: When they had nothing wherewith to pay, he forgave them both, namely out of pardoning mercy, as is said in Matthew 18: "The lord, having compassion on that servant, released him and forgave him the debt"; and this out of compassion for the misery by which we are unable to pay. For all things that we have, we owe to God apart from the obligation of sin: 1 Corinthians 4: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" and 1 Chronicles 29: "All things are thine, O Lord, and what we have received from thy hand we have given to thee." If therefore sins are remitted, it is necessary that they be remitted freely and mercifully, because we can repay no benefit. Yet we are bound to the affection of love, which he requires on account of the benefit conferred. — Whence he adds: Who therefore loves him more? since both are bound to love. Thus the Lord asked Peter after the pardon of his sin, John 21: "Simon, son of John, dost thou love me more than these?" And he asks reasonably, because inequality of benefits ought to be followed by inequality of affections, according to what Gregory says: "When gifts are increased, the accounts of gifts also grow. Therefore everyone ought to be the more humble and the more ready to serve God from the gift, the more he sees himself to be obligated in rendering an account."
74. (Vers. 43.). Thirdly, he approves the Pharisee's response, so that it may be confirmed in truth; for which reason it is added: Simon answered and said: I judge that it is the one to whom he forgave more, namely that he loves more, so that the saying in Romans 5 may be verified: "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound." — And since, as is said in Sirach 21, "whatever wise word a knowing man hears, he will praise it and apply it to himself"; therefore it is added: And he said to him: Thou hast judged rightly. For Christ the Truth approves only this judgment, according to that saying in John 7: "Judge not according to appearance, but judge just judgment." Whence he who had made a false judgment from his own estimation now pronounces a right one by divine guidance, and he who had previously judged badly within himself now judges rightly against himself. Whence Gregory: "The Pharisee is convicted by his own sentence, because like a madman he carries the rope with which he is bound." — And note that here the Pharisee's judgment is commended; yet he who had sinned more is not thereby more approved, but it is shown that insofar as the reason of obligation which comes from what was forgiven is concerned, he is more obligated. Whence this statement is to be understood with reduplication and with respect to obligation, and presupposing grace and rectitude in the will; because many are bound to great acts of gratitude who render few or none. Whence Bede: "In the judgment of all, he offends more who owed more; but through mercy every case is changed, so that he loves more who owed more, if indeed he obtains grace."
75. (Vers. 44.). And turning to the woman etc. Here, after the general judgment, he takes up a special purpose, in which he shows that the sinful woman had greater affection toward Christ than the Pharisee, by setting forth a threefold sign of love, namely weeping, a kiss, and the washing of feet, in which the woman surpasses the Pharisee.
First, therefore, he sets the sinful woman above Simon on account of her weeping, which was an express sign of contrition; and he notes this when it is said: And turning to the woman, on account of her contrition and penance, according to that passage of Zechariah 1: "Turn to me, and I will turn to you." This moreover happens when we love and are loved in return, according to that passage of Song of Songs 2: "My beloved is mine, and I am his"; and Song of Songs 7: "I am my beloved's, and his turning is toward me."
He therefore turned bodily toward the woman so that through her he might instruct Simon, to whom he was speaking; and therefore it is added: He said to Simon: Do you see this woman? He therefore asks whether he saw her, because, although he saw her bodily, he did not approve her deeds but rejected her merits; and although he saw the sinful woman's weeping, he did not attend to her affection.
And therefore he is admonished by the Lord and reproved by comparison with her, in what follows: I entered your house, you gave no water for my feet: on account of which you are blameworthy, because you were not an imitator of Abraham: Genesis 18: "He spoke to the men passing by: Let your feet be washed, and rest under the tree."
But on the contrary, she is commendable, whence it is added: But she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair, that is, she poured out tears in such abundance after the manner of a fountain and stream, according to what is said in Jeremiah 9: "Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes?" And in this is signified the wondrous affection of the woman and her interior grace, which so flowed forth outwardly in tears that there was fulfilled that passage of the Psalm: "He turned the desert into pools of water"; and Isaiah 35: "And what was dry became a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." And in this she is set above the Pharisee with regard to mourning, in which there is an express sign of compunction.
76. (Vers. 4b.). Second, he sets her above him with regard to the kiss, which was a sign of love, when it is added: You gave me no kiss, as a sign of love, according to the Apostle in the last chapter of Romans: "Greet one another with a holy kiss"; and the disciples kissed Paul, Acts 20.
But on the contrary concerning this woman: whence is added: But she, from the time she entered, has not ceased to kiss my feet: in which is signified fervent love and persevering love. Therefore she did not cease from kissing, because she did not cease from interior desire. For concerning her Gregory says that "kindled by the fire of his love, that is, of Christ, she burned with desire." For as is said in the last chapter of the Song of Songs: "Love is strong as death"; and afterwards: "Its lamps are lamps of fire and flames." Whence just as fire always burns, so charity unceasingly inflames: for as Gregory says: "The love of God is never idle."
77. (Verse 46.). Third, he sets her above him with respect to the anointing of the feet, which was a sign of devotion,
when he adds: You did not anoint my head with oil: which was the custom at that time as a sign of gladness and exultation, according to that passage in Matthew chapter six: "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face."
But she has anointed my feet with ointment, which is more precious than oil. Whence this woman offered more precious things to Christ, according to that passage in John chapter twelve: "Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus." In these three evidences of love, therefore, the Lord proves that the sinful woman loved more truly and more fervently.