“Therefore…her sins, which are many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.” (Luke 7:47)

Listen to what St. Paul says about the truth of love:

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:4-7)

The extent of love can be seen as infinite because Jesus has said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:36-37)

The following is from a Catholic living in Europe:

“Thanks for reminding that we should learn from Peter’s humility in your homily: ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ (John 6:68)/

“In my reflection of the sacred words today, I came across the following piece, which got me not to feel disappointed or helpless.

“All blessings came from God; they are gifts given with His initiation and without any condition.

“The sinful woman who repented in the gospel displayed forgiveness and repaying love, the kindness and gratitude of the roles and interactions of the host and the guest: The one to whom more is forgiven loves more; the one to whom more kindness is given are more thankful.

“God’s unchanging love to mankind is shown completely in the countless occasions when the chosen people were disloyal to God in the Old Testament. The giver gives without second thoughts, so what should the recipient do?

“When St. Paul taught his beloved disciple Timothy how to live righteously, he showed a path to walk on: Guard the blessings God has entrusted to us and say and behave righteously and consistently to be an example to all.

“Given that God’s blessings are a gift, keeping them inside will only let them hidden or dry out. Life breeds life. Having received forgiveness means we need to forgive; having been loved means we need to love all. Looking at this from another perspective, the way we live and the way we deal with people are exactly the guideposts of our blessings from God because faith without act is fake. Yes, it is unavoidable that we feel frustrated in negative experiences and we fall in the midst of false witnesses. At the same time, these are the very moments when we should think deeply, contemplating how God never abandons people. If He never regrets giving His love for us, how can we dare to lose hope and to give up?

“Something happened recently that tested my faith:

“I helped a student from Hong Kong, XXX, unconditionally (He was taken to my deli a day before he left). Because he had no place to live, he was very anxious. I was kind enough to allow him to stay in my house and to feed him without charge. We also tried searching for a suitable place for him, but it was not easy. When we found a place, we rushed there with him only to find that many people were living there and the room was small. Therefore, we asked him not to pay us rent and we would just keep searching for a place. Because we did not really know him, his background and life, I could let him stay at the house alone; hence, whenever we went out, he had to leave, too, and we would return home together. In the rest of the time, he was at the deli with us.

“Last Tuesday, we went for a feast in the south. Therefore, I left him some food in the refrigerator in our take-out deli. I told him to wait for us at the deli until we returned and took him home. However, when we returned to the deli, we saw the door of the cold room open (there were a lot of meat and vegetables and other things in the room). At that time, my husband noticed how quiet the place was and knew there was something wrong. He tried to switch the lights on but there was no electricity. It was because the motor for the cold room was burnt and the breaker in the electrical box was also off. We had thought about this before and so we put his food in another refrigerator and we did not know why he opened the door to the cold room and did not close it.

“His act really got us mad. We had to keep our cool and moved the most expensive meat to other locations. Now that a bad thing had happened, we could only face it and solve it. Nevertheless, we were completely down in this battle because the motor was all burnt and could not be repaired and a new one would cost 1,400 euros and this did not include the tax. This whole thing really broke us. The two of us were thrifty all the time and now, because of our kind intention to help people—because the Lord said that whenever you did something for the least of my brothers, you did it to me, and we were following the Lord’s teaching to love our neighbours and to help those in need.—we got this in return.

“A few days ago, I kept asking Jesus this question in my heart: How come I got this when I was following Your instruction? I can say that I treated him as if he were a little Jesus, washing his clothes and letting it go whenever he came back from school at 7:30 p.m. and just sat in front of the computer and rarely helped with household duties (I thought maybe he was having a lot of homework to do). If he had cherished our kindness and understood our love, this whole thing would not have happened. He really broke my heart.

“In those few days after the incident, I cried and complained to Jesus everyday I went to church. I complained that he forgot our kindness to him. I was very disappointed and frustrated and promised myself quietly that I would never help a stranger again. Though I had this thought, I still asked God to give me to strength to forgive him and to offer this incident to Him in order to repay the humiliation that He suffered for us. Then on Sunday, when I prayed for strength to forgive him as usual after Mass, I gazed at the tabernacle and suddenly heard a soft whisper from God: “Why are you still upset about this? Aren’t you just like him and forget My kindness to you though I have been good to you? Do you only feel the way I feel now?” These words got tears burst out of my eyes and I felt immense shame.

“Lord, please forgive my ignorance. I thought I should get a nice reward after having given just a tiny offering. Please forgive my faithlessness and my human weaknesses.

“Lord, I am determined to follow You. Please help with my shortcomings.

“Only today could I finally release myself as I was listening to your homily and reflecting on the sacred words.

“Please pray for me. Thank you.”