Msgr. Pope on Seeing the Whole Person

"As we read Scripture, we should be very attentive when Jesus asks a question. In particular, we should understand that Jesus is posing the question to us as well. It is easy to treat the Gospels like a spectator sport and wait to see what the response is, but that is not the only way we should engage with the text. Not just the Gospels but the entire biblical narrative is our story, too. We are in the story, and the story is in us. . . .

"Let's ponder a question that Jesus asked in last week's Gospel reading. . . . The question comes in Luke 7, when Jesus is dining at the house of Simon the Pharisee. As Jesus reclined at table, a sinful woman came up behind Him; she washed His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with expensive perfume. The text tells us that Simon thought to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him, for she is a sinner' (Lk 7:39). A few moments later Jesus asks Simon, 'Do you see this woman?' (Lk 7:44)

"Now, let the question linger for a moment and ponder its depths. . . ."

In a recent commentary, Monsignor Charles Pope (pastor of Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Parish, Washington, DC) reflected on how easy to "forget that behind the many labels we can put on another person is a human being, a child of God, someone's son or daughter, perhaps someone's father or mother, perhaps someone's brother or sister" and on how it is a "form of reductionism in which we focus on a single aspect of a person, forgetting the full, complex human being that exists."

To access Msgr. Pope's complete post, please visit:

Community in Mission: Do You See this Woman? (8 OCT 19)