And they that sat to eat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgives sins also?
All Commentaries on Luke 7:49 Go To Luke 7
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Christ is our love. Love is good, since it offered itself to death for transgressions. Love is good, which forgave sins. Let our soul clothe herself with love of a kind that is “strong as death.” Just as death is the end of sins, so also is love, because the one who loves the Lord ceases to commit sin. For “charity thinks no evil and does not rejoice over wickedness, but endures all things.” If someone does not seek his own goods, how will he seek the goods of another? That death through the bath of baptism, through which every sin is buried, is strong and forgives every fault. The woman in the Gospel brought this kind of love. The Lord says, “Her many sins have been forgiven her, because she has loved much.” The death of the holy martyrs is also strong. It destroys previous faults. Since it involves a love not less than theirs, death that is equal to the martyrs’ suffering is just as strong for taking away the punishment of sins. Isaac, or The Soul–.
