And one of the Pharisees asked him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.
All Commentaries on Luke 7:36 Go To Luke 7
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Now in this place many seem to be perplexed with the question, whether the Evangelists do not appear to have differed concerning the faith.
Matthew has introduced this woman as pouring ointment upon the head of Christ, and was therefore unwilling to call her a sinner, for the sinner, according to Luke, poured ointment upon the feet of Christ. She cannot then be the same, lest the Evangelists should seem to be at variance with one another. The difficulty may be also solved by the difference of merit and of time, so that the former woman may have been yet a sinner, the latter now more perfect.
Or, the leper, is the prince of this world; the house of Simon the leper, is the earth. The Lord therefore descended from the higher parts to this earth; for this woman could not have been healed, who bears the figure of a soul or the Church, had not Christ come upon earth. But rightly does she receive the figure of a sinner, for Christ also took the form of asinner. If then you make your soul approach in faith to God, it not with foul and shameful sins, but piously obeying the word of God, and in the confidence of unspotted purity, ascends to the very head of Christ. But the head of Christ is God. But let him who holds not the head of Christ, hold the feet, the sinner at the feet, the just at the head; nevertheless she also who sinned, has ointment.
Bring you also repentance after sin. Wherever you hear the name of Christ, speed thither; into whatever house you know that Jesus has entered, thither hasten; when you find wisdom, when you find justice sitting in any inner chamber, run to its feet, that is, seek even the lowest part of wisdom; confess your sins with tears. Perhaps Christ washed not His own feet, that wemight wash them with our tears. Blessed tears, which can not only wash away our own sin, but also water the footsteps of the heavenly Word, that His goings may abound in us. Blessed tears, in which there is not only the redemption of sinners, but the refreshing of the righteous.
Throw about your hair, scatter before Him all the graces of your body. The hair is not to be despised which can wash the feet of Christ.
But she is of no slight merit of whom it is said, From the time that she entered has not ceased to kiss my feet, so that sue knew not to speak aught but wisdom, to love aught but Justice, to touch aught but chastity, to kiss aught but modesty.
Blessed is he even who can anoint with oil the feet of Christ, but more blessed ishe who anoints with ointment, for the essence of many flowers blended into one, scatters the sweets of various odors. And perhaps no other than the Church alone can bring that ointment which has innumerable flowers of different perfumes, and therefore no one can love so muchas she who loves in many individuals. But in the Pharisee's house, that is, in the house of the Law and the Prophets, not the Pharisee, but the Church is justified. For the Pharisee believed not, the Church believed. The Law has no mystery by which secret faults are cleansed, and therefore that which is wanting in the Law is made up in the Gospel. But the two debtors are the two nations who are responsible for payment to the usurer of the heavenly treasury. Butwe do not owe to this usurer material money, but the balance of our good deeds, the coin ofour virtues, the merits of which are estimated by the weight of sorrow, the stamp of righteousness, the sound of confession. But that denarius is of no slight value on which the image of the king is found. Woe to me if I shall not have what I received. Or because there is hardly any one who can pay the whole debt to the usurer, woe to me if I shall not seek the debt to be forgiven me. But what nation is it that owes most, if not we to whom most is lent? To them were entrusted the oracles of God, to us is entrusted the Virgin's offspring, Immanuel, i. e. God with us, the cross of our Lord, His death, His resurrection. It cannot thenbe doubted that he owes most who receives most. Among men he perhaps offends most whois most in debt. By the mercy of the Lord the case is reversed, so that he loves most who owes most, if so be that he obtains grace. And therefore since there is nothing which we can worthily return to the Lord, woe be to me also if I shall not have loved. Let us then offer our love for the debt, for he loves most to whom most is given.
