St. Peter Chrysologus: Luke 7:47 THURSDAY IN PASSION TIME: Many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much.

The Pharisee asked Christ to eat. What did the woman who was not asked seek there? A stranger does not burst into the interior of a house. An uninvited man does not dare to enter its private banquet room. A reckless spectator does not dare to disturb the foods made ready to relax spirits weary after labor. Why, then, does this woman, unknown—or rather of bad reputation— burdened with grief, weeping copiously, lamenting aloud, with the doorkeeper unaware, and everyone else, too, even the Shepherd Himself—why does she run through all the doors, pass through all the groups of servants, fly even to the private hall of the banquet, and turn the whole house of joy into one of lamentation and wailing?

Brethren, she did not come uninvited; she was under command. She entered not as one rashly daring, but as one ushered in. He who ordered her to be absolved by a heavenly judgment is the One who caused her to be brought to Himself. The well-dressed Pharisee was reclining at the first place on his banquet couch, swelling with pride before the very eyes of Christ. In order to please men, not God, he was gaily engrossed in his banquet. At that time the woman came. She came up from behind, because a guilty soul seeking pardon stands behind the pardoner's back. She knew that because of her guilt she had lost the confidence to stand before His face.

When she came, she came to make satisfaction to God, not to please men. She came to provide a banquet of devotion, not of pleasure. She set a table of repentance, served courses of compunction and the bread of sorrow. She mixed the drink with tears in proper measure, and to the full delight of God she struck music from her heart and body. She produced the organ tones of her lamentations, played upon the zither by her long and rhythmical sighs, and fitted her groans to the flute. While she kept striking her breast in reproach to her conscience, she made the cymbals resound which would please God. While she set foods like these before God's sight, she received abundant mercy.