Thursday 19 September 2024
St Januarius
1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good – Psalm 117(118):1-2, 15-17, 28. Luke 7:36-50.
By God’s grace
St Paul’s personal testimony is a source of great hope for us: a man who ‘persecuted the Church of God’ but was eventually able to bear fruit ‘by God’s grace’. There is an element of surprise in his life and conversion, expressed so vividly here: ‘it was as though I was born when no one expected it.’ To come into relationship with God through Jesus is to be transformed, reborn.
It is this way for the woman who comes to Jesus and extravagantly washes his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair and anoints them with ointment. She is reconciled with her God; her sins are forgiven, and she is sent away in peace. It is not that she has been perfect; nor has Paul. But she seizes the opportunity to come close to Jesus, and in doing so she opens herself up to the grace of relationship with him.
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