2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
I wonder how you would feel if you had to talk to a group of prisoners, and to talk to them about God’s love and forgiveness.
Well, we may not have that kind of experience，or that kind of task given to us.
But we can certainly imagine the apprehension and the anxiety that comes with it.
Another aspect to consider is that what are we going to say and how should we say it.
Keeping in mind that the audience is a group of prisoners and we are going to talk to them about God’s love and forgiveness.
We cannot sound judgmental or condescending, nor can we pretend that there was no wrongdoing at all.
Well, a priest was asked to speak to a group of prisoners about God’s love and forgiveness.
In the days that led up to the talk, he thought about what he needed to say and how to say it.
So finally, the day came and he went to the prison, and he was escorted to the room where the talk was to be held.
As he walked into the room, the prisoners looked at him with silent expressionless eyes.
After the introduction, the priest stood up to speak.
He looked around at the prisoners and then he began to speak.
So how do you think he started? What do you think were his first words?
Well, how would you have started? What would be your first words?
Well, the priest began with these words: The difference between you and me is that … I was not caught.
Strange words to begin with, right?
Yes, strange words to begin with, but strangely, very true.
So from robbery to adultery, from speeding to littering, as long as we were not caught, we can fake innocence.
But still it is a fake innocence. All because we were not caught… yet!
In a way, it is similar to sin, right?
As long as our sins are not exposed, we can fake innocence. Yes, we can fake innocence as long as nobody knows about our sins.
There are three characters in today’s gospel – a sinner, the sinless one, and then there is the one who is faking to be sinless.
The problem was not with the sinner or the sinless one.
The problem was with the fake.
Simon, the Pharisee, thought he was the sinless one, yet he was just faking it.
Yet Jesus did not expose him outright. Instead, he used the parable of the two men who owed a debt to let Simon realize it, to let him catch himself, so as to speak.
Indeed, when we catch ourselves, we will truly and humbly ask for forgiveness.
That was the case in the 1st reading.
What we heard in the 1st reading was just the consequence of the pronouncement that King David made earlier.
The prophet Nathan did not expose David about his sin of adultery and murder.
Rather, he told a story of a rich man who had a flock of sheep and a poor man who had a beloved lamb.
When the rich man had a visitor, he took the lamb from the poor man and had it slaughtered to entertain his guest.
When King David heard the story, his anger flared and he judged the rich man as deserving the sentence of death.
It was only when David made that pronouncement that the prophet Nathan said to him: You are that man!
And David knew he had caught himself and he repented.
But today’s gospel is not about who had sinned and who was faking righteousness.
Rather, it is about the realization for repentance and the need for forgiveness.
I like to share with you a story about the need for realization for repentance and the joy of forgiveness.
A priest noticed that a man went into the church in the middle of the day.
The man’s clothes were rather shabby and dirty. He went to the pew, knelt down, bowed his head, then he rose and walked away.
In the days that followed, that man would come in around the same time and do the same thing.
The priest began to be suspicious of that man, so one day, he decided to stop that man and ask him what he was doing.
The man replied, saying that his factory was down the road.
Lunch was only half an hour and he used the lunchtime as his prayer time for finding strength and power.
But he could only stay for a few moments and so he would say this prayer:
I just came to tell you, Lord, how happy I have been. Since we found each other and you took away my sin. Don’t know much about how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So, Jesus, here I am, checking in today.
The priest feeling foolish and awkward, told the man he was welcomed to come and pray anytime.
When the man left, the priest knelt at the altar and he realized that it had been a long time since he said a heat-felt prayer.
His heart began to melt, and warmed with love, he felt Jesus there and he repeated that man’s prayer:
I just came to tell you, Lord, how happy I have been. Since we found each other and you took away my sin. Don’t know much about how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So, Jesus, here I am, checking in today.
God does not want to catch us in our sins and punish us.
But He will use events, situations, and people to help us catch our own sins, so to speak, and to realize the need for repentance.
The joy of forgiveness is awaiting us. The only thing that can block it is when we continue to fake innocence.