COMMENTARY.
Jesus is the Messias. The miracles of Jesus, so completely coinciding as they do with the prophecies of Isaias, are conclusive evidence that Jesus was the promised Redeemer.
Candour and fortitude of St. John. He exercised his office of preacher of penance not only to the multitude, but to the great and powerful as well.
To admonish sinners is a spiritual work of mercy.
Application. Do you try, as St. John the Baptist did, to prevent sin as far as you are able? If your brothers or comrades desire to do anything wrong, you too should say: “It is not lawful — it is a sin.”
Chapter XXV.
THE PENITENT MAGDALEN.
[Luke 7, 37 to 8, 3. Cf. Mat. 26, 7. Mark 14, 3. John 11, 2 and 12, 3.]
IN those days a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to a banquet [1] (Fig. 74). Jesus went into the house and sat down to table. Now there was in the city a woman [2] called Mary Magdalen, who, having been a great sinner [3], had recently been converted by the preaching of Jesus. When she heard that our Lord was in the house of Simon, she resolved to honour her Divine Benefactor.
She brought an alabaster-box of precious ointment, entered the house, passed through the dining-room unmindful of the guests, fell down [4] before our Lord without speaking a word, and, breaking the vase, she poured the ointment on His feet. Then, filled with repentance, she began to kiss His feet, and to wash them with her tears, and to wipe them with the hair of her head. And Jesus was pleased.
- ↑ A banquet. At which several other guests were present.
- ↑ A woman. It is a tradition that she was called Mary Magdalen, or Mary of Magdala, a city on the Lake of Genesareth.
- ↑ A great sinner. Every person in the town knew that she had led a bad life. She must have been rich, as she had with her, we are told, an alabasterbox of precious ointment.
- ↑ Fell down. She did not speak a word, but performed her work silently and weeping. Her tears betrayed what was in her heart, namely, a deep contrition for her sins.
