On Thursday of Passion Week, the Roman liturgy historically turns toward the imminent public reconciliation of the penitents, a great event that took place on the morning of Holy Thursday. In the ancient Church, the Lenten period constituted a time of rigorous purification, in which the faithful who had committed grave faults and were separated from Eucharistic communion underwent intense practices of fasting and humiliation. On this Thursday, exactly one week before the solemn rite of absolution that would reintegrate them into the assembly and the Holy Communion, the mystery of perfect repentance and confident hope in the infinite goodness of God is profoundly celebrated. In the millennial tradition of the city of Rome, the Church of Saint Apollinaris (Sant'Apollinare alle Terme) serves as the station for this day and gathers the faithful in a spirit of profound intercession for those who longed for the forgiveness of their spiritual debts.
🎵 Introit (Dn 3, 31 | Sl 118, 1)
Omnia, quæ fecísti nobis, Dómine, in vero judício fecísti: quia peccávimus tibi, et mandátis tuis non obœdívimus: sed da glóriam nómini tuo, et fac nobíscum secúndum multitúdinem misericórdiæ tuæ. Ps. Beáti immaculáti in via: qui ámbulant in lege Dómini.
Everything that You have done to us, O Lord, You have done with justice; because we have sinned against You, and have not obeyed Your commandments; but now glorify Your Name and deal with us according to the abundance of Your mercy. Ps. Blessed are the pure in their way; those who walk in the law of the Lord.
📖 Epistle (Dn 3, 25. 34-45)
In those days, Azariah prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord, our God, do not abandon us forever, for the sake of Your Name and do not destroy Your covenant; do not withdraw Your mercy from us in consideration of Abraham, Your chosen one, Isaac, Your servant, and Israel, Your holy one, to whom You spoke and promised to multiply their posterity as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashores. For, Lord, we have been reduced to a smaller number than all the other nations and today we are humbled throughout the earth because of our sins. Today we have neither prince, nor prophet, nor holocaust, nor sacrifice, nor oblation, nor incense, nor a place to offer You our first fruits, so that we may find mercy before You. But receive our contrite hearts and our humbled spirit. Just as a holocaust of rams and bulls, as that of thousands of fat lambs, so may our sacrifice be carried out today before You, that it may be pleasing to You, for those who trust in You will not be confounded. And now, we want to follow You with all our heart and we fear You, and we seek Your Face. Do not shame us, but act toward us according to Your clemency and according to the abundance of Your mercy. Deliver us by Your wonderful power and give glory to Your Name, O Lord. Confound all those who inflict vexations on Your servants; ashamed by Your omnipotence, let their strength be overthrown. Let them know, O Lord, that You are the Lord, the only and glorious God, over all the earth, O Lord, our God.
✝️ Gospel (Lc 7, 36-50)
At that time, a Pharisee asked Jesus to eat with him. Entering the house of the Pharisee, He sat down at table. And a woman who was a sinner in the city, knowing that He had sat down at table in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster vase full of ointment and, prostrating herself at His feet behind Him, with tears she began to bathe His feet, and to wipe them with the hair of her head, kissing them and anointing them with the ointment. Seeing this, the Pharisee who had invited Jesus thought within himself: If this man were a Prophet, he would surely know who and what kind of woman this is who touches Him, for she is a sinner. Understanding this, Jesus said to him: Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered: Master, speak. Jesus replied: A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed him five hundred denarii and the other fifty. Since they had nothing with which to repay him, he forgave both their debt. Which of them would love him more? Simon answered, saying: I think it is the one to whom he forgave more. Jesus said to him: You have judged well. And turning to the woman, He said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave Me no water for My feet; but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not kiss Me, but she, since she entered, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not give Me oil to anoint My head; but she has anointed My feet with ointment. And for this reason, I say to you that many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much. But he to whom less is forgiven, loves less. Then He said to the woman: Your sins are forgiven. And those who were at table said among themselves: Who is this who even forgives sins? And He said to the woman: Your faith has saved you; go in peace.
🕊️ The Contrite Heart and the Abundance of Divine Mercy
The forgiveness of sins in the economy of salvation is not a mere juridical act, but the restoration of the soul’s order to divine justice through charity. Upon entering the house of the Pharisee, the sinful woman sets aside social conventions and pours out an ointment that symbolizes the total surrender of her will. Her tears attest to a deep and purifying sorrow, while the action of drying Christ’s feet with her own hair manifests a piercing humility that draws upon herself the gaze of mercy. As Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 24, a. 10), such love proceeds from the infused grace that impels her to seek reconciliation, indicating that the immensity of the charity demonstrated is perfectly proportional to the magnitude of the sin forgiven. Saint Augustine (Sermon 99) clarifies that, in the face of purity of heart, no sin is an insurmountable obstacle, directly opposing the external and presumptuous justice of the Pharisee, who closes himself off to compassion and does not see his own spiritual misery.
This same attitude of unconditional trust in the midst of humiliation resonates profoundly in the prayer of Azariah in the Epistle reading. Exiled in Babylon, deprived of sacrifice, temple and prophet, he offers the only holocaust that remained to him: a contrite heart and a humbled spirit. Saint Ambrose (On Penance, Book II, ch. 8) reminds us that penance is invariably the door that makes possible the return to friendship with God, and the interior attitude of contrition replaces the great material holocausts. This reading resonated intensely in the ears of the ancient faithful who were in the ranks of the penitents, separated from the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. Unable to commune materially, like the Jewish people without their temple, they offered the interior pain of their repentance as the highest liturgical incense, crying out to God not to treat them according to the vigor of His wrath, but according to the clemency and the wonderful promises of His Holy Name.
The key to uniting the humility of the exiles in Babylon and the redemptive gesture of the sinful woman is found precisely in the cry of the liturgical Introit: “Everything that You have done to us, O Lord, You have done with justice; because we have sinned against You… but now glorify Your Name and deal with us according to the abundance of Your mercy”. It is the true heart of ascetic life – the sincere recognition of guilt under the just divine punishment, followed by the immediate abandonment into the loving arms of Christ. The Pharisee condemns by external appearance, while God absolves by the charity infused in the depth of the being. The extraordinary love that proceeds from penance reveals that whoever is much forgiven loves much. Thus, the path trodden by our fathers in the faith teaches us that confident faith in the Savior restores our fallen baptismal dignity, conferring upon the contrite soul an unshakable peace that exceeds any purely human understanding.