Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 18 September 2025 Thursday in the Twenty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I 1 Timothy 4:12-16 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 7:36-50
Your words today surprised me again, Lord Jesus: so many times I find myself like Simon the Pharisee, always welcoming you into my home, into my life, into my meal and many times too like him, I am shocked, becoming judgmental at times like the others when a sinner comes like that sinful woman who gatecrashed to get near you, Lord.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hudnred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one I suppose, whose larger debt was forgive.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly” (Luke 7:39-43).
Forgive me, Jesus, when I fail to see my own sinfulness, my past where I came from before being with you as a disciple: I, too, am a sinner like that woman who broke all protocols and conventions just to get close to you, to touch you and be restored by you in your mercy and forgiveness; let me heed Paul's call to Timothy to be "absorbed" in your love because discipleship is more than knowing you and following you but most of all, loving you most especially among the unloveable for we were once like them. Like that sinful woman, let me go in peace today by rejoicing in your infinite mercy for us all, not just me. Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City ([email protected])
