On the Harlot and the Pharisee (complete)

God, as one who loves humankind, has always given sinners a time for repentance; but the careless man destroys his own soul by his indolence. For loving things that are vain, earthly and passing, he is deprived of the enjoyment of the heavenly goods; and man, who was appointed king and lord of all by his Maker and God, has become a slave of sin through worldly desires. Hence David too says of those who do such things: “They have not known, nor understood; they walk on in darkness.” And Christ, hinting at sinners, says: “They do not come to the light, lest their works be exposed; for everyone who does evil hates the light.” And again he says: “While you have the light, walk toward the light, lest darkness overtake you.” And again he says: “I came into the world that they might not perish, but that they might have life.” And again: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save it”; and again: “I lay down my life for the sheep.” When the harlot heard these words, proclaimed everywhere like perfumes and giving to all who are worthy a fragrance of life, she came to recall her evil deeds and at once took hold of these words, weeping over the shame of her deeds and considering the evils that would come upon her because of them; for great affliction and pain awaits fornicators there. Fearing these things, the harlot was changed; and she no longer remained a harlot, but at once became more chaste than a virgin. For she sat down and set up a court by herself, and condemning herself she said: “Woe is me, the sinner! Woe is me, the profligate! How long shall I not depart from evils? Why do I not consider the compassion of God, that for my sake, who am straying like a sheep, the Master goes around every road? For my sake he bowed the heavens and came down; for my sake … The sinless one draws near to the sinner; he who feeds all shares a table; he who is carried upon the cherubim reclines upon the earth, and remits for all sinners the bonds of their sins. Why then do you wait? Take courage, my soul, approach; he did not come to save the righteous, but sinners.” And when she had said this, at once from the table of Christ the fragrance of forgiveness came upon her—upon her who was once profligate but now chaste; once a wild beast, now a sheep; once a slave of sin, now free through repentance; once a harlot, now modest. And standing up with a soul eager for help, she comes to him. And seeing the Master at table, she did not, like the Canaanite woman, ask for crumbs, but embraced the whole bread of life himself. For the Canaanite woman pleaded for her demon-possessed daughter, and when she heard herself called a dog, asked to receive crumbs; but this woman had not a demon-possessed daughter, but her whole body possessed by the demon of licentiousness. The Canaanite woman cried out before everyone, “Have mercy on me, Son of David”; but the harlot uttered no cry, but seeing that he knew everything as God, silent with her mouth she spoke with her heart to him who knows hearts; and weeping she kissed his feet, and so moved the Master to compassion. But I would like, brothers, to search out the mind of that wise woman, and to learn how Christ received her and how he shone upon her darkened soul. For truly, as David prophesied, the Lord is “beautiful in loveliness beyond the sons of men”; and not only beautiful, but also a lover of the beautiful. For even before she came in to him he recognized that she had the resolve of a good soul. But, if you will, let us hear the words of the Gospel too: “As Jesus was reclining in the house of the Pharisee, a woman who was a sinner in the city … And taking an ointment of great price, she came in and anointed his feet, and wet them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair.” Great zeal of a woman, a great race of …, a great resolve of a soul wishing to be rid of dangers! She heard and she hurried; she pushed her thought toward repentance, saying this within herself: “O sinful and thrice-wretched soul, what are you waiting for? Why do you hesitate? Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Behold, the time you were seeking has come; behold, he is present who looses, cleanses and scours away sins; … is present. How long will you remain in the mud and the stench? Go to him; for he came for your sake. Leave the vanities of the past, and long for the beautiful things of now: those are abominable, these are desirable and eternal. Hate the old way of thinking; anoint with perfume him who made the perfume; flatter him who wishes to save you. You have found a lover beyond all the lovers you had. Though you loved them, he will forgive you the many sins, the earlier ones too, which you acquired from them.” Reasoning thus, … to the house, and says: “I withdraw from the old evils, I find the new good things, and I agree with them; I renounce the evil one, and I enlist with the good one. For I have heard David saying, ‘Come to him and be enlightened,’ and the Lord himself saying, ‘Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you.’ I too draw near to God, but I am afraid—a sinner going to the sinless one, mud going to perfume. But I have a pledge of his compassion: his voice, which says, ‘Come to me, all you sinners, and I will give you rest.’ So I go; he does not reproach me, he does not say to me: ‘Get away from me, sinner; until now you lived in darkness, and now you have come to see me, the sun of righteousness?’ But why do I hesitate? I take perfume and go to him, and I make the Pharisee’s house a place of illumination, and with the streams of my tears I prepare a pool for myself; and from the alabaster of the perfume I receive the seal of the faithful on my forehead, and by repentance I am cleansed of my sins, and by his healing word … is despaired of. I know that in the Old Testament Rahab the harlot had a dwelling of sin at the gate of the city; but she received the spies of Israel and gained life as the reward of her hospitality. For Joshua the son of Nun, who saved her, held a type of the true Jesus: the son of Nun repaid the harlot with good things for the spies. If, then, the name of Jesus gave salvation and forgiveness of sins at that time, will the true Jesus now, the virgin and born of a virgin, thrust away a harlot who gives him hospitality and anoints his feet with perfume, and not grant forgiveness of sins? But there Rahab let the spies go; I remain holding fast the one I have longed for—not, like her, a spy of a city, but the overseer of all human souls. Behold, as I said before, the time I longed to see has come: the day has shone, and the sun of righteousness, and the acceptable year from the Lord, and a great visitation from God. For truly the dayspring from on high has visited us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. The Master is lodging in the house of Simon; let me go to him. And what shall I do? Shall I weep, as Hannah wept over her barrenness? But Simon will reckon me drunk, as Eli the high priest once did Hannah. Then I will stay at the feet of Christ, praying in my heart and weeping. That is what I will do.” And the faith of the harlot worked together with her pure intention, and she goes to the man who sold perfume, and begins to say to him: “Since a great friend, beyond all the sons of men, has come to me, if you have a perfume worthy of him, give it to me, so that I may worthily offer it to him who is worthily loved by me, who has set my heart and my kidneys on fire. Do not worry about the price; if need be, I am ready to sell even my body and bones and give them, so that I may have even something small to offer him who is so willing to cleanse me.” And he, seeing the warmth and resolve of her faith, says to her: “Tell me, who is this whom you long for, that he has so warmed your love? What do you expect to receive from him for this perfume?” And she says to him: “What are you saying to me, man? You do not know; you do not know what you are uttering. He has something to give me worth the perfume, even though no one can give him anything worthy of his dignity. Not heaven itself, nor the earth, nor anything in this world compares with him who has come to me. Me, whom you regard as cheap, he deigned, as one who loves humankind, to free from my sins. He is the Son of David according to the flesh; that is why he is fair to look upon; for it was of him that David said, ‘Beautiful in loveliness beyond the sons of men.’ He is the Son of God; and I have not seen him, but hearing about him I was wounded with longing. Michal, the daughter of Saul, loved David, left the palace and followed him in his poverty. And I sell my own wealth, though I gathered it wickedly, and buy perfume, and run to the son of David who became poor for my sake.” And taking the perfume the faithful harlot ran, as though invited, to the house of the Pharisee. And the Pharisee, seeing the harlot holding the feet of Jesus and anointing them, and the whole house filled with the fragrance of the perfume, reasoned within himself and said: “If this man were a prophet, he would have perceived who the woman touching him is, that she is a sinner.” And he faulted the harlot’s boldness, for drawing near shamelessly and touching him; and he blamed the Master himself, for receiving without discrimination all who came to him; and condemning him for ignorance he said within himself: “What a business! I invited him to dinner as one of the prophets; and this woman, whom all who live in the city know and everyone is acquainted with, he did not recognize. If he were a prophet, he would have known who the woman is.” But Christ, who tries hearts and kidneys, saw the Pharisee’s reasonings; and while his thoughts were tossing, Christ becomes a calm within him, and says to him: “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he says: “Teacher, say it.” He says to him: “I seemed blameworthy to you because I did not put the harlot to shame but sheltered her; it seemed blameworthy to you that I did not turn away from the sinner but received her; it seemed blameworthy to you that I did not drive her away but justified her; it seemed blameworthy to you that I called back the woman who wanted to flee from her own iniquities. When you ought to rejoice over one who fell and has risen, you grieve over good things. But your blame is not reasonable. Judge this, which I am about to tell you. There were two debtors to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. When neither of them could pay, the creditor forgave both of them their bonds. Which of them, then, ought to love him more?” And he says: “I suppose the one to whom he forgave more.” And he says to him: “You have judged rightly.” Then, turning to the woman, he said to Simon: “Do you see this woman, whom you have spurned? You did not deign to wash my feet, but she has wet my feet with tears; you gave me no kiss of love, but she has not ceased to kiss my feet; you did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. But learn, Pharisee, who the creditor is and who the debtors are. I am the creditor of the two, of you and of her; and not only of you, but of all human beings. I have bestowed on all what they also received from me: soul, breath, body, sense, knowledge, movement. So the creditor, who does not demand that you repay in full what you received, if you cannot pay it back, beseech to forgive you the debt. But if you can neither pay it back nor deign to beseech forgiveness, be silent like the harlot herself, who, seeing her many debts, said within herself: ‘What shall I say, or what shall I answer? If I want to say, I do not owe the debt, he knows everything, and he knows how much I owe and for how long I have been liable.’ That is why, seeing that he knows everything and that none of the evils she had done escapes him, she came silently, weeping, and confessing all her debts in her heart, she won God’s favor. So you too be silent, Pharisee, that the Lord may forgive you your debt. Do not, being condemned, condemn her who is condemned; do not, being cheap, cheapen her who is held cheap. Be quiet; for I have no need of what is yours or of what is hers; I came to forgive the debt of you both. For I am the merciful creditor of the two—and not only of you, but of all who have nothing to pay, if only they confess the debt and ask me to forgive them their bond through repentance. If anyone, then, is a debtor and comes to the grace of baptism, through it he is freed from his debt. Go, then: behold, you have been released from your debts, you have been freed from all liability by grace; do not again bring in another bond upon yourselves, once the first has been torn up.” But, Lord and Master Jesus Christ, since I have not the means nor the strength to repay you what I owe—for through my many iniquities I have wickedly spent the capital along with the interest—do not demand of me what you gave me, the capital of the soul and the interest of the flesh; but lighten me of the burden of my debts, as one who loves humankind, and say to me too, as to the harlot, “Your many sins are forgiven.” For you are merciful and good and a lover of humankind, and forgive those who sin; and to you belongs all glory, honor and worship, with your Father who is without beginning, and your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.