During our Monday community gatherings at the office, the support team gets busy with the setup. All efforts focus on making sure that the details of the event are perfect. After the gathering, the support team packs up everything and puts them in storage. We had no time to get to know the attendees.

After about a year, we shifted gears and simplified our physical preparations. That way, we could utilize more of the team’s time to be with our attendees, engage them warmly, and interact with them—even if it meant just listening to each other. Because of this, we had more repeat attendees who would also bring other friends with them.

This shift allowed us to redirect our focus and be more present on a personal level to each other. Our energies and time have been redirected to what truly matters in building our community—to give more time and presence to people and not to things. 

Maria Paz Jimenez-Balayan (pazjbalayan@moward.com.ph)

reflect

“The gift of presence is a rare and beautiful gift. To come—unguarded, undistracted—and be fully present, fully engaged with whoever we are with at that moment.” (John Eldredge)

Jesus, help me to focus and direct my efforts to what truly matters in my service to You. Let me see more of You in others and listen well so I can be truly present for them.

St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and Doctor of the Church, pray for us.

Paul details his understanding of the resurrection appearances of the Lord, including his own, which differs slightly as it occurs after Christ's ascension into heaven. Whatever the nature of Christ's appearance to Paul, there is no doubt about the depth of his conversion. Let us reflect on the meaning of the resurrection and its transformative power in our own lives.

¹ I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. ² Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. ³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; ⁴ that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; ⁵ that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the Apostles, not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 28

R: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. ² Let the house of Israel say, “His mercy endures forever.” (R) ¹⁶ “The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord has struck with power.” ¹⁷ I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. (R) ²⁸ You are my God, and I give thanks to you; O my God, I extol you. (R)

Gospel | Luke 7:36-50

Jesus does not dwell on our past except to forgive our sins and heal our wounds. What truly matters is our willingness to open our lives to God’s power and allow Him to work within us. There is always a risk in trusting others, but surrendering to God and His love is the greatest and most life-giving risk we can take.

Gospel Acclamation

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

³⁶ A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. ³⁷ Now, there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸ she stood behind him at his feet weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. ⁴¹ “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. 42 Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴ Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷ So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸ He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹ The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  ⁵⁰ But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read PSALMS 116 - 118 today.

There is a common theme that threads our readings for today.In the Gospel, Jesus visited the house of Simon to dine with him and his guests. While dining, a woman in that town, “who lived a sinful life” (v. 37), came and wept at the feet of Jesus. She dried Jesus’ feet with her hair and then anointed them with costly perfume. Simon was scandalized that Jesus allowed a sinful woman to approach Him, thinking, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (v. 39).

In the First Reading, Paul gives us a sort of autobiographical sketch of himself: “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” He was a zealous anti-Christian who persecuted the first Christian believers, but was transformed by an encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-9).

In both readings, we can see how grace can transform a sinful woman to becoming a follower of Jesus and a persecutor of Christians to an ardent proclaimer and missionary of Christ’s Gospel.

In both readings, we can see that sin does not disqualify us to be in God’s presence. Sin does not disqualify us from the grace that God wants to bestow on His children. The only thing that disqualifies us is a haughty and righteous heart that is blind to its sinfulness and does not trust in the transforming mercy of Jesus. 

That was the paradox of the sin of the Pharisees. Self-righteousness shielded them from seeing their own sinfulness. Pride kept them from seeking out Jesus as “the one who can forgive sins.” 

Fr. Joel O. Jason

reflection question

Don’t feel disqualified by your sins. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

Jesus, forgive me more and more of my guilt and cleanse me of my sins. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ________________________________