Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, we have the memorial to the Korean martyrs of the 19th century,
St. Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chung Ha-Sung.
They were among the over 100 martyrs who were martyred in Korea during the 19th century.
The church in Korea had started in the 16th century
with the coming of late...
the missionaries from China to Korea.
Priests did not arrive until the 19th century
when the Paris Foreign Mission Society sent priests in secretly.
And the community of Christians, Catholics, was flourishing.
So that we can see the blood of the martyrs today
with the church in Korea, which is strong and vibrant,
is the seed of the church.
This is always the case.
The more people try to destroy the church of God,
the church of Jesus Christ,
the more it flourishes.
Today's gospel is only indirectly linked to the martyrs
because we can see how the church is given to the Gentiles.
The woman, in a way, represents a fallen sinner,
somebody outside the Jewish community,
represented by Simon and the Pharisees,
who looked down upon her,
just like the Gentiles were looked down upon by the Jews for being pagans.
But as we can see here, Jesus welcomes the Gentiles
in the person of the woman who was a great sinner.
And the self-righteous, proud Jews condemn our Lord
for what he has done.
Simon says if he knew if this man were truly a prophet,
he would know that this woman is a sinner.
And Jesus, reading his thoughts,
because God knows all our thoughts,
read his thoughts and said,
Simon tells him the parable of two debtors,
one who owed a great amount of money
and one who owed less amount of money.
And then he asked Simon,
which of these two do you think is more grateful?
And of course Simon logically figures
that the woman who owed a great deal,
or the sinner who owed a great deal,
and rightly so.
Both were sinners.
The woman was a sinner in the parable,
in the story today,
and Simon is a sinner.
But maybe because Simon,
his sins were not as great or as big,
he was not as grateful.
He may not even thought he was such a great sinner.
Just like people today.
They don't think they're so bad.
I'm a good person.
I don't hurt anybody.
I don't do this and I don't do that.
I'm not a murderer.
I'm not a bank robber.
I don't sell drugs.
I don't get drunk and so on.
But they may be even worse.
Of course they could be proud.
They may not go to church,
giving God the glory.
That's a great sin.
A very great sin.
To keep holy the Sabbath
and to give God honor and glory.
So we can see how Simon
and many of the self-righteous today
are represented by that parable.
But the woman who is a great sinner,
a notorious sinner,
Saint Augustine tells us that she is Mary Magdalene.
It's the same Mary that
anointed Jesus at Bethany.
There's another time in the Gospel
where a woman anoints Jesus,
but that's another woman.
And Matthew and Mark tell us
that the woman anointed Jesus' head.
Here we see how Mary Magdalene
in the person of this woman,
not named in today's Gospel,
anoints the feet of Jesus.
And how beautiful.
What a tender story
when you think about it.
Watering his feet with her tears,
wiping them with her hair,
and kissing them profusely.
Things that Simon didn't do.
Jesus said,
you didn't give me any water for my feet,
you didn't embrace me with a kiss,
and yet this woman has not stopped.
Oh, how blessed is this woman.
None other than the great saint
who stood by the cross,
who stood by the cross of Jesus Christ,
Saint Mary Magdalene.
It's a beautiful story.
It's a great lesson for all of us
to be grateful for all the sins
that God has forgiven us.
And how grateful,
where would we be without
the forgiveness of sins?
This is what the world needs.
Only Jesus Christ can forgive sins.
This is why Gilbert Keith Chesterson
became a Catholic.
He said,
I wanted a church
in which my sins are forgiven.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret
said the same thing
about the Catholic Church.
About how people should join
the Catholic Church
rather than some other
Protestant denomination or whatever.
Because he said,
where else are they going to get
the forgiveness of sins?
As we know in our faith,
Jesus gave the church
and the person of the apostles
the authority to forgive sins.
Whose sins you shall forgive,
they are forgiven.
Whose sins you shall retain,
they are retained.
One of the seven sacraments.
How foolish people are
not to believe this.
It's in the scriptures, of course.
And the Catholic Church teaches it.
How blessed we are
to have our sins forgiven.
So we should be so grateful,
like Saint Mary Magdalene.
And let us pray,
my dear friends,
for the many, many people today
who are so careless.
Who don't acknowledge their sins.
Don't believe they're committing any sins.
How foolish.
How blind.
Pray for them,
as Our Lady said at Fatima.
Pray and sacrifice
for many souls who go to hell.
Because no one prays
and sacrifices for them.
So let us pray for all
the people of the world
represented by Simon
in today's story.
Who think they're pretty good.
They don't hurt anybody.
And how foolish they are.
Because their sins
are hidden.
They may be worse.
We pray for them.
Lest they also
perish.
As Our Lady said.
Many souls will go to hell.
Because no one prays
and sacrifices for them.
So let us pray our rosaries,
especially for the conversion
of sinners.
And many souls
will be saved.
May the Lord bless you.
May You bless us with
the fruits of Your transfiguration.