11th Sunday of Ordinary Time June 13, 2010 Reflections on II Samuel 12: 7-10, 13 Galatians 2:16, 19-21 Luke 7:36 - 8:3 by Sister Patricia Crowley, OSB

I. Introduction:

Using adjectives as nouns can be a dangerous thing in our human relations! Never fear, this is not going to be a grammar lesson!

But…Today’s gospel story does point this grammatical warning out in a rather dramatic way.

Now, there was a sinful woman in the city…..

….when the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw (her) he said to himself:
“If this man, Jesus, were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman (this is) …and that she is a sinner.”

First, the woman is called sinful (….and aren’t we all???). Then, she is categorized as a sinner (a banished lot in those days….).

I first became aware of the danger of turning adjectives into nouns when I worked at Deborah’s Place and in homelessness. We trained ourselves to think of the women we served, first as women (as persons…) and secondly, as having experienced or as experiencing homelessness.

We began to recognize that the way we talk sometimes forms the way we think… We tried to never call the women with whom we worked “the homeless” because that seemed to put them in a category. It seemed to say that was really who they were when each one was much more than just one of the homeless. We tried to look at their homelessness as a temporary (granted, it was sometimes a long period of time…) condition or state of being. This was not easy and continues to be a challenge for me.

We are so accustomed to using adjectives or conditions as nouns or categories for other people. Our society does this all the time:

1 A person who suffers from a mental illness becomes part of a group called “the mentally ill”.
2 A person who has become addicted to a drug is called a “drug addict”.
3 A woman who works in prostitution is called a prostitute.
4 A person who is handicapped so that they are unable to walk might be referred to as a cripple.
5 A group of people who happen to be sick might be referred to as “the sick”.

We do this in conversation and sometimes in our prayer.

II. The gospel story we just heard has many aspects.

One of them is the process by which someone might begin to learn to leave adjectives where they belong and to not turn them into nouns (…or categories).

The story, as constructed in the gospel according to Luke, is a pedagogical masterpiece:
1 The tone of expectation is set with the underlying question of what kind of an invitation is this as it is clear it is not from someone who would call himself a follower of Jesus. Is it just friendly or is there a trick in the invitation?
2 The scene is set:

o The invited guest, Jesus, arrives and is seated at table without the usual rituals of hospitality offered to him before he “reclines at table”.
o The host is a person of stature and seems to be observing what is happening at his dinner party.
o An uninvited guest (a woman) enters the scene and begins to treat the first guest (Jesus) as he had a right to be treated upon entrance (according to the custom.
o The host thinks to himself….if my invited guest were all that people make him out to be, he would know that this woman is a sinner and not someone we ought to be welcoming here.
o The invited guest (Jesus) says to the host: “I have something to say to you.”
o The host says “Speak”.
o Jesus speaks in a language that is seemingly important to the host – the language of money.
o The host seems to get the point.

Jesus proceeds to demonstrate how it is that a person is able to move out of being part of a group / a noun – “She is a sinner!” into being a person described in a clause that acts as an adjective - she is now one “whose many sins have been forgiven.”

Part of what makes this possible is another person, Jesus, recognizing her as a human person. She is not just “a sinner”. She is a person first.

Jesus does so….

1 He accepted her loving gestures of bathing his feet with her tears and anointing his feet.
2 He recognizes that she, indeed, has been sinful in her life.
3 He speaks directly to her.
4 He acknowledges the power of her love.
5 Perhaps, as Jesus is able to be present to her reality in this moment, Simon, too, may have learned something of the pitfalls of categorizing people.

III. Changing adjectives into nouns is not the only pitfall we human beings fall into in dealing with one another. This gospel selection points to another way with its emphasis on a group of human beings who had / and have been oppressed and seen as a group with less capability. That group is “women”. This gospel is about a woman and ends with a list of other women who were important in Jesus’ life.

A. I just finished reading (on CD) a marvelous book called Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff (of the New York Times) and Sheryl WuDunn, on the reality of women in poor countries around the world and how improving the economic situation of women clearly leads to an improved economy for the whole country.

B. It begins by sharing stories of how women get into the world of trafficking and slavery and prostitution in areas of poverty. Each woman who tells her story of moving out of oppression, begins as this gospel woman did – by being recognized as a human person and not being seen just as one who had been forced into prostitution or the sex trade or slavery.

C. Jesus clearly recognized that women were key to his message getting across to all of us human beings. This gospel selection demonstrates through a story, a woman who “got the message”. She grasped her own condition, recognized the power of Jesus, acted on her own insights, and was acclaimed by Jesus as one who loved well. As a result, she was forgiven.

D. Jesus clearly recognizes women as equally important. He does not relegate them to a back burner. Women have too often been categorized as “less than…”.

E. Luke’s gospel makes significant mention of women and the list of women that follows this story is impressive – Mary called the Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and many others… A similar list is found in a later chapter at the time of the Resurrection.

F. Feminist scholars have worked hard to try to show that Jesus’ emphasis on women was not often given prominence in the scriptures and in our tradition. We continue to struggle with this reality today.

G. The phenomenon of women throughout history is one of a movement out of oppression, out of categorization.

IV. Conclusion

H. Describing people who are experiencing something temporary as if they will always be that way is unfair to them.

I. Categorizing people is a form of oppression - a way to put them aside, into a box where they can be controlled. Parents know this does not work in raising children. We all need to call ourselves to that realization.

J. Let us, in the spirit of today’s gospel, keep adjectives in their place and acknowledge the full human person in each and every one of our brothers and sisters.

K. The Love and Forgiveness depicted in this gospel give us the framework within which to do this in our lives.

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