Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops or Holy Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day each and every one of us are reminded of the faith and the teachings which we have received from God, and to which we have been called, just as St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians in our first reading reminded us, that we need to cling closely to the Good News and the truth which God has revealed to us through His Apostles, their successors and the Church. And what is this truth and Good News, brothers and sisters? It is what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, the essence of our Christian faith in how the Lord treated the sinful woman, a prostitute who came to the feast hosted by the Pharisees for the Lord. When the Pharisee host saw this he was evidently hoping for a chance to catch the Lord off His guard by this opportune moment, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law and large segments of the Jewish society then looked down on prostitutes whom they considered as sinners and unworthy.

Therefore, as the sinful woman came to the Lord, they would perhaps hope that the Lord would either cast out the woman and condemn her, therefore affirming their own position and practices of the faith, by showing that even the Lord Jesus was on their side supporting their way of interpreting the Law, or else, by allowing her to touch Him without resistance, the Pharisees could then discredit the Lord and condemn Him for allowing a sinner to taint Him among other things. But what the Lord did to the woman, just as what the woman also did to Him were surely beyond belief of all those who witnessed the occasion. The woman took a very expensive jar of alabaster with best perfumes inside, and used the perfume to anoint the feet of the Lord with great love, and she humbled herself, most likely kneeling down low in doing so, and then dried the feet of the Lord with her own hair, the crown of her beauty and her pride.

In doing so, the sinful woman lowered herself and humbled herself such before God, with tears and sorrow, repenting for her sins with great sincerity. She must have heard of the Lord’s coming, and His fame and works, which preceded Him, must have stirred the woman, who wanted to be forgiven from her sins and faults. And that was how the woman came to the Lord and humbled herself before Him, begging for His mercy and forgiveness. And God gave her the forgiveness for the sincere repentance she had shown. The Lord then also immediately pointed out to the Pharisees who were baffled by what the woman had done and by what the Lord had told her, that the Lord is loving and forgiving, generous with His mercy and compassionate forgiveness. He used the parable of a creditor who had two people owing him money at the same time to explain this, and highlighted how the forgiveness of those debts made the indebted ones felt so thankful and appreciative of the forgiveness.

Thus, the woman, who was sinful and had done many wicked things earlier on, would naturally be more grateful for the mercy shown to her, rather than the Pharisees for example, who did not appreciate this mercy and love of God. And the Lord made this to point out that, after all, every one of us are sinners, regardless whether we are great sinners or whether we have only sinned a lot less against God, and sin is still sin to be forgiven. Unless the sinner seeks the Lord’s forgiveness with an open heart and with the genuine desire for repentance, the sinner will not be forgiven. And as the example showed has clearly been presented to us, for each and every one of us to be forgiven, we need to get rid from ourselves pride and arrogance, hubris and ego, and be open to God’s mercy and forgiveness, to seek Him with a remorseful and repentant heart.

We are truly so fortunate to have such a loving and merciful God, and we often do not appreciate this opportunity presented to us, spurning the chances that God has given to us, in His generosity and kindness, and therefore, we should embrace this love and mercy wholeheartedly and not wait until it is too late for us. And today we should follow the good examples of the saints whose feast we celebrate today, namely St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Hildegard of Bingen. St. Robert Bellarmine was a Jesuit priest, and later an Archbishop and Cardinal who had been very influential in the era of Counter-Reformation, when the Church and Christendom were bitterly divided and afflicted by divisions due to the many heretical thoughts and radical ideas from the numerous Protestant reformers and others who did not obey the teachings of the Church, and sought to follow their own standards and ways instead of following the true teachings of the Church as they should have done.

St. Robert Bellarmine spent a lot of time as an educator in teaching theology and other Church ideals and teachings, to many of his students in various educational institutes, including his mentorship of many members of the clergy and bishops. He was then involved in the reforms of the Church as someone who helped to implement the decrees and decisions of the Ecumenical Council of Trent in rooting out corrupt and wicked practices done by the clergy and the laity alike in the Church. He opposed the then common practice of having bishops frequently not residing within their respective dioceses, among other irregularities and corruptions in the Church. His personal piety and dedication to God inspired many long after his passing.

Meanwhile, St. Hildegard of Bingen was someone who had always been attracted to monastic life and a life of dedication to God from her early years, and she eventually professed to be a religious nun, living her life in hermitage and isolation from the world. She spent a lot of time in prayer, receiving various visions that made her to be a renowned mystic, and she wrote rather extensively about her experiences. That was her gift and talents given to her by God, just as St. Robert Bellarmine was given the gift of intellect and passion for reform, as well as the opportunities to do so. And as we discussed earlier, each one of them made good use of those talents and opportunities, doing great works for the Lord and positively affecting their fellow brothers and sisters, and also the Universal Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having been inspired by the great examples of St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Hildegard of Bingen, and also by the great faith of the sinful woman who had humbled herself such before the Lord and everyone, let us all therefore do our part to live our own lives humbly and courageously in doing God’s will at all times, aspiring always to accomplish our respective mission and calling in life, to make good use of the gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities that the Lord has provided us. Let us all serve Him faithfully and be good role models, inspirations and examples for one another, doing all that we can to glorify Him by our lives, now and always. Amen.