When Sorry Gets Personal

Reflection Date: September 17, 2026 | Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Memorial of Saint Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church
Daily Readings: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 7:36-50

Children of God:
In biblical times, a kiss on the feet was not simply a romantic gesture or a humiliating act as it is sometimes portrayed in modern telenovelas. 

In the ancient Mediterranean world, kissing someone's feet could express deep respect, submission, gratitude, or recognition of a person's honor and authority. 

People could bow before important persons, touch or kiss their feet, or fall at their feet as a physical expression of humility. 

Such gestures were especially meaningful in a society where social rank, honor, hospitality, and personal relationships were taken very seriously. 

A person who kissed another's feet was not necessarily being humiliated because the gesture could communicate reverence or profound gratitude. 

This is quite different from the way telenovela dramas sometimes portray foot-kissing, where a character dramatically falls before another person as a public act of humiliation, surrender, revenge, or emotional manipulation. 

In those dramatic scenes, the gesture often becomes a powerful way of showing someone's defeat. 

In the biblical world, however, the meaning depended greatly on the relationship, the circumstances, and the intention behind the gesture. 

The woman who approached Jesus therefore did something socially striking, but her actions were not merely theatrical humiliation because she was expressing repentance, gratitude, and love through an unusually intimate act of devotion. 

Her tears, kisses, and perfume communicated something that words alone could not express.

So, what are our inspirations for today?

First, people who experience forgiveness deeply can love without holding back.

The woman in the gospel story did not simply walk into the house and offer Jesus a polite greeting. 

She expressed her gratitude with tears, with her hair, with kisses, and with expensive ointment. 

Her actions looked excessive to the people watching her, but Jesus saw something they failed to see: the depth of a heart that experienced mercy.

Simon the Pharisee looked at the woman and saw her reputation. Jesus looked at her and saw her capacity to love. 

That difference is important because we can easily reduce people to their worst mistakes. 

We remember what they did, what they said, where they failed, and what other people said about them, while forgetting that a person is always capable of becoming something more.

People who experience forgiveness deeply can love without holding back.

Second, we should become less judgmental when we remember how much we also need forgiveness.

Simon saw the woman as someone who did not belong at the table. 

Jesus saw her differently. 

He told Simon a short story about two people whose debts were forgiven, and when Simon identified the one who received the greater forgiveness, Jesus connected that answer with the woman's extraordinary love.

Jesus did not deny that the woman had a troubled past. 

Instead, he refused to allow her past to become the only thing people could see about her. 

This is an important distinction. 

Forgiveness does not require us to pretend that wrongdoing never happened, but it prevents wrongdoing from becoming the permanent definition of a person.

We can easily become like Simon when we look at another person's life from a safe distance. 

We may think, “I would never do that,” or “That person deserves what happened,” without remembering the times we ourselves made mistakes, hurt people, needed patience, or depended on somebody else's mercy. 

The gospel invites us to replace the question “What did that person do?” with another question: “What kind of person can this person still become?”

We should become less judgmental when we remember how much we also need forgiveness.

As we reflect, we ask ourselves: Do I sometimes define people by their past mistakes instead of recognizing their capacity to change? 

When I receive forgiveness, do I allow gratitude to change the way I treat other people? Whom do I need to look at with greater compassion because I am remembering only that person's past and forgetting my own need for mercy?

Children of God:
The difference in perspective can also change the way we look at people around us. 

Sometimes we are quick to remember another person's worst moment while asking others to remember our best intentions. 

We want understanding for ourselves but sometimes demand perfection from everyone else. 

The gospel reminds us that forgiveness is not simply about wiping away a mistake but about giving a person room to become different. 

Today, let us remember that a person's past may explain where that person has been, but it does not always determine where that person can go.