1. Forgiveness of sins.
Not everyone will die with the luxury of being assisted by a priest. Some will die due to a plane crash. Some because of a terrorist attack. Others because of old age. And a few of heart attack. All of these will not be able to call for a priest to hear his or her confessions.
Besides, the priest’s help is useless unless the soul is repentant. So repentance should still come first before absolution
Repentance leads to Faith. Faith is what forgives sin.
But Faith is dead unless it is alive with Charity.
So Charity that enlivens Faith is the best way to have sins forgiven as shown by the woman, known as a sinner, but who had great love for God and neighbour. Such love, alone, can forgive all sins, as Christ said. ‘your sins are forgiven because you have loved much.
In the event of a plane crash or a heart attack, the best thing to do is to make an act of great love to have all our past sins forgiven. But a crashing plane or a heart attack will not give us enough time to be able to make such an act. This act of love takes a lot of time for preparation. Preparation should start from childhood.
2. Forgiveness of sin occurs within the Church.
You should know which is the true Church and how to enter that Church. Because sins are forgiven within the Church, and not outside. Which is the true Church? That which has the visible sign of Oneness, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity. These are the four visible signs of the true Church as described in the Nicene Creed.
How do we enter the Church? By an act of Repentance. We begin repentance outside the Church. Then it is completed within the Church. Within the Church, repentance is followed by the gift of Grace by which sins are forgiven. And with that Grace Faith, Hope and Charity are Given by God to the soul.
Now, let’s see how the sinful woman went through these steps.
3. The whole scenario of the woman with great love occurred within the Church; though it begun outside Simeon’s house. The steps are commented by St. Thomas of Aquinas.
a. The Gospel narrates that she was outside and saw Christ enter a house. She followed Christ into the house of the Pharisee. Any house where Christ is becomes the Church. So the house where Christ entered is the Church and the sinful woman followed Christ there. The woman begun her act of repentance even before she saw Christ then completed her repentance inside the house (inside the Church).
b. She showed the perfection of her repentance when she wept at the feet of Christ.
c. The perfection of her repentance produces the fruit of humility, the first Beatitude, showing her washing His feet. This first Beatitude, poor in spirit, is the beginning of the grace of Faith. Thus Christ said; ‘your Faith is your salvation.’
d. Faith is dead without Charity (love). Both virtues are now present in the sinful woman. And the presence of Charity is shown when she wiped the feet of Christ with her hair. Her hair is the symbol of her possessions. She used all her possession in the service of the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ in which she is now inside. This is equivalent to wiping the feet of Christ with her hair.
The presence of Charity is what enabled her to wipe the feet of Christ with her hair. Not the way around.
The end of the Gospel, in fact, describes the women who accompanied Christ and the apostles. They were described as ‘assisting them from their means.’
Assisting others using your resources is meritorious only when it is done to persons with Faith, Hope and Charity, i.e. to those who are inside the Church. If it is done to such persons, it is done to Christ because they make up the Mystical Body of Christ. Such acts are considered great acts of love or charity; and they are supernatural acts.
If the same act is done to those without the four visible signs of Catholicity they are not considered acts of love; and they are not considered done to Christ. There are mere natural acts of Philanthropy.
4. Using one’s resources for the work of God.
Before the sinful woman could ‘love much’ and have her many sins forgiven she had to do the following; first, she looked for the true Church and that is any house where Christ was. In effect she was looking for Christ. That means she should know Christ. That is only possible if she had the beginnings of Faith. Secondly, knowing Christ partially, she realised that only Christ can forgive her sins. So she searched for Him and followed Him. Thirdly, realising that sins, first and foremost, is an offence against God she weeps and ask for forgiveness from Christ. Fourthly, weeping can only be regret as in the case of Judas. And that is not enough. The woman went deeper into humility which she had learned in her partial knowledge of Christ. Fifthly, having realised that Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church, are identical she uses her resources to serve Christ.
That last act is evidence that God had given her the supernatural gift of Charity by which she now fully recognises Christ. In the span of a brief moment, the sinful woman with many sins had become a woman without a single sin and a great saint. In a short span of time!
5. The sinful woman and the young rich man.
When the young rich man was told to go home, sell all his possession and give them to the poor, the act of giving was not to the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. The giving to the poor was an act of good works which is a part of repentance. It was not yet an act of Charity like the act of the sinful woman.
When Ananias and Saphira withheld a portion of their resources, they withheld it from the Church, the Mysical Body of Christ. This is liked refusing to give it to Christ; a refusal to love Christ in the church. So it was a more serious sin than the inability of the young man to give all his possession to the ordinary poor people.
The young rich man refused to repent. Ananias and Saphira refused to love the Church.
6. The importance to know the true Church.
The sinful woman was able to do what she did because she knew Christ. That is like knowing the Church. Christ and the Church are identical. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ.
We can, also, have all our sins forgiven if we can do what the sinful woman did which transformed her into a great saint in a matter of minutes. But we must first know Christ and the Church; and believed that forgiveness of sin is from Christ and within the Church. Christ forgives within the Church. We must enter the Church and get the forgiveness of Christ within the Church. And there is where all our problems begin.
Modern man knows neither Christ nor the Church. Nor do they care to have their sins forgiven. If they do not care to have their sins forgiven why should they look for Christ and the Church. In fact the tendency today is to encourage man to commit sin. This encouragement is coming from Pope Francis down to the Bishop’s Conference, from presidents of nations to the lowest grades in schools.
When Gilbert Chesterton was asked why he wants to be a Catholic, his answer was that the Catholic Church has the most convincing way on how to have sins forgiven. From Anglicanism, he became a Catholic and even a great Catholic writer. If conviction on the forgiveness of sin motivated Chesterton to be Catholic, what will motivate man to be a Catholic when men are not interested in the forgiveness of sin but instead in multiplying their sins? And this encouragement is coming from the Pope and from the Bishops and priests.
And the Pope gives his missionaries of mercy the power to forgive special sins. What for? Men are not interested in having their sins forgiven believing they can forgive their own sins just by an act of the mind. Pope Francis gave man the excuse; ‘ you could not help sinning.’ And he is the head of the Church that is supposed to help.
7. Conclusion.
It all follows. Man loves to sin. It is his fallen nature. As such, it is distasteful for him to leave his sins through repentance. This repentance is necessary for him to prepare himself to receive the grace of Faith that forgives his past sins. And only when he has Faith can he reach Charity that will enable him to wash the feet of Christ with his hair.
Only after you wash Christ’s feet with your hair will Christ say; your many sins are forgiven because you have loved much. Your Faith is your salvation; a true Faith that is enlivened with Charity. Not the Faith alone of the Protestants.
Christ had prophesied that our era will experience the ‘decay of Faith’ and the ‘waxing cold of Charity.’ If so, how can we have our past sins forgiven and avoid future sins? No way.