On the Sinful Woman
In mulierem peccatricem
The Shepherd and the Lost§1
1Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, offers a discourse concerning the sinful woman who anointed the Lord with myrrh and concerning the Pharisee.
Christ previously greatly cheered us while dining with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10); for where Christ dines and reclines with men, and enjoys our drink and table, he brings all things toward the matter of gladness. For who, having come to tax collectors or prostitutes and those who have done unspeakable things, would justify the matter of making it a feast and a festival, seeing the maker of the heaven and earth as a tax collector, the giver of the grain receiving human bread with hands, and the provider of the grapes blessing the loaves for the communion of drink? This is truly a feast, this is truly the gladness of an angelic banquet: to see the Master with the slaves, God with men, the Judge with those under accountability, enjoying a common table.
For this reason he came upon earth, not leaving heaven desolate, and he has become man, not being far from being God, so that he might also, sailing the sea, draw up from the depth of sin and guilt those tossed by the waves of the livelihood, and circling cities, running through narrow ways, paths, and streets, those wandering at the crossroads, like lost sheep, back to their own fold, the shepherd (Luke 15:4). For he is the one seeking the lost sheep, having left the ninety-nine and going about the search for the one. For he seeks the one, neither regarding the many nor preferring the one over the multitude. But since he left the ninety-nine, for it was necessary that they be safely penned in the fold, he went circling to seek the one, so that he might not be lost and become the devil's. For a lost sheep is a ready supper for beasts and an unsealed soul, vulnerable to demons. Therefore, having previously snatched Zacchaeus as a sheep from the mouth of a wolf and brought him to the fold...
And he deserved the seal. For just as a shepherd, wishing to hunt a sheep that has gone astray, sees a captured animal so that he may pull back the one that leaped away while grazing absolutely, so also the Word of God, the flesh which he took from the virgin, left Zacchaeus as a sheep in a pasture at the table of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), so that, having pulled him by the common law of the meal, he might secretly join him to the domestic flock for communion.
But the Pharisees, not understanding this, were grumbling seeing him eating with tax collectors (Luke 5:30). But let those be torn like an old wineskin (Mark 2:22), for they are not able to receive the new wine of the teaching of goodness; but let us walk after the Philanthropist Shepherd. For having joined Zacchaeus the tax collector to the flock by the logic of the apostles, he himself also, having pulled the sinful fornicatress, the worker of myriads of evils, from the throat of the devil like a lamb, delivered her to the unassailable fold.
In order that you may know also the philanthropy of Christ, and the irrationality of the Pharisees, and the turning back of the sinner, I will set before you those evangelical sayings; for if you listen to the style of the reading, you will easily grasp the sense of the interpretation. One of the Pharisees, he says, asked Jesus to eat with him. And having entered into the house of the Pharisee, he reclined (Luke 7:36). O unutterable grace! O unspeakable philanthropy! And he dines with Pharisees, and does not shun tax collectors, and receives fornicatresses, and converses with a Samaritan woman (John 4:7), and deems a Canaanite woman worthy of a word (Matthew 15:22), and grants the basin to the woman with the hemorrhage (Mark 5:25).
Yes, for he is a physician touching all sufferings, so that he might benefit all, both the wicked and the good, the ungrateful and the thankful. Therefore also now, having been called by the Pharisee, he enters into a house full of evils until the end. For where there is a Pharisee, there is a starting-place of malice, a gathering-place of sin, a reception of pride. But even so, with his house being in such a state, he does not consider it unworthy to come near.
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Marriage and the Fall of the Woman§2
2The Lord. It is truly so; for just as the sun is not defiled by filth when casting its own rays, but on the contrary clothes itself in the present joy without being insulted itself, so also Christ, as the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2), seizes every impure and profane place, and consumes the malodorous sin with his rays of goodness, undergoing no insult, no diminution, no stain, according to the nature of the divinity. Therefore, he easily sympathized with the Pharisee who was calling, being calm, silent, and leaving his life unexamined.
First, in order to sanctify those called, the one who called the woman arranged the arrangement of the house and the abundance of food; then showing that the incarnation was not a phantom, from the reclining, the eating, the drinking, and the expenditure on provisions. Furthermore, because the harlot was about to approach and show that fervent and fiery way of repentance, for this reason, in calling the Pharisee, he sympathizes quickly, so that, having theatrically exposed the domestic evils before the eyes of scribes and Pharisees, he might teach them how sinners, loathing at sins, must be honored by God. Behold, he says, a woman in the city, who was a sinner (Luke 7:37). Woman: the easily deceived nature, the first net of the devil, the introduction to error, the teacher of transgression, having become a helper indeed but having been revealed as a war, having been born good according to nature but having been shown evil by choice, the bringer of death, she who showed the beauty of the tree and lost the whole paradise. And behold, a woman, he says, in the city, who was a sinner, bearing the burdens of Eve, being covered by many evils. And I shall speak of the abundance of her former evils, so that you may know the abundance of her repentance.
God, having taken a bone from the side of Adam and having clothed this in flesh, made Eve, whom having called woman, he gave as a helper to Adam (Genesis 2:22). But after sinning and transgressing the law and being cast out of paradise and receiving death as the penalty, so that the race might not be lost by spending itself away by death immediately, marriage wages death, so that one may sow and another reap, one may cut and another may sprout (John 4:37). And that after being subjected to death, the grace of marriage was given, is evident from the fact that Adam, after the departure from paradise, was joined to Eve.
For it is written that after the exit from paradise, then Adam knew his woman (Gen 4:1). Before the sin, therefore, virginity was keeping the garment of nature unstained, but after the transgression, after the decision of death, marriage was given in response, so that by drawing from death he might overcome, and by ripening while being defeated, he might conquer.
Since the law of marriage was given for the succession of the race and the increase of nature, it introduced pleasure to the man, but made the female a creature of desire; not so that they might incite one another toward sexual mixing in a companionable way, but so that they might join together for marriage according to law. Therefore, the lawful mixing of marriage is precious before God, but that which is performed for the sake of pleasures is subjected to death. For marriage and the bed are precious and without blame; but God will judge prostitutes and adulterers.
Therefore, those who mix with men lawfully for the sake of upbringing are blameless, just like Sarah and Rebekah and Rachel, and if there is any other from them; but those who, by the word of pleasure, stir up the young toward lawlessness, as if they were destroying the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17), are delivered to corruption. For if anyone, he says, destroys the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17), God destroys this one.
And this one also was once one, the sinful one after the hand marriage. For, capturing nature and coloring the cheeks with external paints and striving to appear beautiful by art, she dragged the young toward lawlessness, unexpectedly turning them into the abyss of prostitution. And I say these things not to make a comedy of her before which she acted, but to praise her because of what she has become suddenly; for I say what she was, in order to show what she has become now; I say the stumbles of her sin, in order to show the achievements of repentance.
But this one, having used the body not without fault before, some by the lure of charms, some by the medicine of tears, some by the enchantment of ointments, calling all from everywhere toward the feast of lawlessness, transforms the shameful and pleasurable desire of it into a divine and heavenly filter. For as he saw Jesus, at times conversing with the Samaritan woman without a husband, at times approaching the Canaanite, at times announcing the theft when the blood was flowing, and in one way eating with tax collectors, and in another way the Pharisees seizing the houses, he reasoned: If prostitutes and sinners and...
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The Silent Confession of Tears§3
3As a tax collector approaches, how long will I scoop out the sea of sin without restraint? I remain neither young nor beautiful; for everything passes away, everything withers, both flowers and lilies and the beauty of faces. What then do I suffer because of those things upon which I relied? For I already perceive the fire of Gehenna (Matt 13:42), and my soul is already receiving the realization that I used to run in the streets of the city, in the marketplaces, in the alleys, appearing beautiful while violently pressing upon destruction, having a net for my feet and a snare for my tongue. Oh, how many youths I used to lay low, bearing a shameless gaze!
For, being delighted by the ruin of onlookers, at times I would build up my head with many-braided hairstyles, and at times wander in a crowd of curls from the summit toward the front; at other times I would smooth the cheeks and trace the eyes, and at other times I would pour out floods of tears, casting the soul aside through flattery. What then should I become regarding these things? What physician shall I find for one having suffered these things? If I speak about myself to men, the way of my deliverance becomes useless to me. But shall I cover the evils? Yet I am unable to remain hidden; for how can I hide from God, whom I am unable to avoid? Where then shall I flee, finding the Judge everywhere, the one who is not visible indeed, but everywhere exposing my evils?
One hope of salvation remains to me, one provision of life is set out for me: to come to knowledge of Jesus and to run toward Him. For the tax collector, being received, does not reject the prostitute, nor does the one associating with the Pharisees (Luke 7:38) waive the tears of the sinner. Since, therefore, I have learned how it comes to Simon the Pharisee, to a leper and a sinner, I will run to him. But what shall I ask upon approaching? Health of the eyes? But grace is fleeting. Deliverance from disease? But the achievement is small, for the eternal death of the present is heavier. Leaving all the things of the body aside, I will seek the cure of the soul. For I find one solution for the evils that remain attached, if I see the Judge, if I forestall the time of punishment. I will imitate Rahab the prostitute (Josh 2:1); I will pursue the way of the virtuous woman; for God does not will a change of nature from us. Having piously considered these things and having applied my mind toward faith, she approaches Jesus where she was previously practicing her former shamelessness.
Taking a presumption of boldness, she says nothing to him; for she did not dare, knowing that he who carries the thoughts needs no words. For what could she say to him who knows all things? That she had sinned? That she had become a worker of many evils? That she had loved and pursued all kinds of pleasure? These things were manifest to God, not only in her deeds, but also being laid bare in the hidden council of the soul.
Knowing therefore that he knows all and that she can nothing escape, she guards her tongue, but speaks with her tears. For standing, she says, by his feet weeping, she began to rain upon his feet with tears. But even if she did not speak with her tongue, but expressed herself with silent groans, uncovering the crushing of her heart, proclaiming a triumph of the multitude of sins, emitting strange thoughts, shameful memories, impious acts, and lawless associations; for there was nothing of the evils she had done which she did not cry out with tears. For she knew that from these she had received the remission of her confession. For I said, she says, I will confess my lawlessness to the Lord, and you have forgiven the impiety of my heart.
And she did not only express herself wordlessly with the groans of the heart, shaming the Lord, but her form also traced the beauty of repentance. She wept with beautiful tears as if having laughed much, washing away the evil laughter, and with the streams of her eyes washing away the filth of her cheeks, so that in those things in which she sinned, she might be absolved, and in those in which she acted lawlessly, she might appease the Lawgiver. For just as David washed with tears the bed which he had shamelessly defiled with entanglement, he says: 'I will wash my bed every night, I will wet my couch with my tears' (Psalm 6:6); so also this woman, having let fall streams from those eyes through which she had led many youths into incontinence, washed away the filth of the difficult sin, setting forth the tears as a bath of repentance for herself. For she provided the tears as water herself, but received the remission invisibly from Christ. But indeed, perhaps not only imitating Abraham, but overcoming him, she washed the feet of Christ. For he, having been placed as a laver, washed with water and wiped with a cloth, but this woman, not having drawn water, but having cried out tears...
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The Pharisee's Ignorance vs. the Woman's Repentance§4
4Letting go of his feet, she washed the feet of Jesus. But sparing them — lest with sinful tears she affront the holy feet — she laid the beauty of her hair beneath them like a towel and wiped his feet. And one could see the whole woman bent over him, tending Jesus: her eyes, like fountains from above, poured out streams of tears, while her soul, like a basin set beneath, received the drops falling from his feet; her locks did the wiping, serving as a towel; and her hands, pouring out the alabaster of ointment, anointed his divine feet with myrrh to honor him — for, as she says, 'myrrh emptied out is your name' (Song 1:3).
You saw how a sinful woman overcame the ungrateful mindset of the Jews and the divine lack of laws. For they threw stones at him, but she refreshed him with the ointments of fragrance. But the Jews, being ungrateful, foolish, and ignorant, repaid the benefactor with stones, thinking to love the cornerstone (Matt 21:42); but she anointed the feet that were to stand all day because of her upon the cross. And why do I say that she overcame the ungrateful people of the Jews, where the whole choir of the saints surpassed them? For she received grace which kings did not receive, which the powerful did not attain; for kings of Tarshish and islands will bring gifts, and all the kings of the earth will worship him (Ps 72:10). And indeed according to the prophet, they gave gifts and worshiped boldly, but none of them loved the feet of Jesus.
How? The Magi came having taken the star as an ally of guidance (Matt 2:2), but they brought gifts boldly, knowing the measure of their own rank. For the heaven, he says, is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet (Isaiah 66:1). Therefore let the woman be praised as having received the honor of the whole earth, as having touched the stainless feet whose dust the nations and patriarchs shall scatter, according to what was said that they shall scatter the dust of his feet. She touched stainless feet, and shared the body toward John of Christ. For he fell upon his chest, for from that place he was to send out divine teaching; but she left behind the feet of him who walks for our sake. But Christ, who does not judge sin but praises repentance, who does not despise the past, but the future...
Testing existing things, having passed over her former evils with forgiveness, He honors the woman and praises her repentance, justifying the tears and crowning the intention. But the Pharisee, seeing the wonder, is struck in his mind and, being cast by envy, does not accept the woman's repentance, but even mocks the one who thus honored the Lord and diminishes the dignity of the one honored, seeking to vote down his ignorance.
For, he says, the Pharisee who called him, seeing, said to himself: 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.' 'O thoughtless and senseless and all-encompassing Pharisee!' Saying these things, you do not expose the manner of the woman, but you accuse your own forethought of being ignorant, saying what sort of woman she once was. Surely you did not honor him as knowing all things as God in the calling; therefore, have you no shame, O bright accuser and slanderer, that you call him as God and able to bless, but you shout at him as a man and saying he knows nothing concerning us. 'This,' he says, 'if he were a prophet.'
And how much better than you, O Pharisee, is the woman in Shechem, who did not know a prophet and, from first sight, having recognized the Savior, most gratefully confessed: 'Lord, I see that you are a prophet.' How much more wonderful than you is even this sinner, whose sin you see, but whose repentance you do not see. But you also condemn her whom the Judge justifies, and you blame and lie about her whom God, having accepted, crowns; because, having seen God lying beside you in human form, she knew and honored; and having uncovered the wounds of the soul, she asked for mercy and for the forgiveness of those having been burdened.
But you, having honored by the calling, dishonor by mockery, saying: 'If he were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who touches him.' Wretched man! Just because you did not expose her evils, do you vote down his ignorance? Just because she went up to your roof, burdened with many evils, do you reject his knowledge? But because you deigned him to go up to your roof, to recline with you and to lay hands on your bound ones, you grumble and did not deign him, thinking him one of many? Were you worthy to host God or to set a table for the one preparing a table in the wilderness? But being a lover of mankind, you not...
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magnifying the mote, swallowing the camel§5
5magnifying the mote, swallowing the camel
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The Contrast of the Woman and Judas§6
6Being an apostle, do you rebuke me? And while the woman prepares for the tomb, the disciple hands over the Lord to death. The woman is a sinner, I know; but she had nothing to grant me, or a fountain of tears, pouring out fountain upon fountain, offering an incorporeal atonement to an unskillful teacher.
But you also test, you wretch, saying it is worthy of three hundred denarii; yet you test not so that you might praise her great extravagance, that she consumed all the wealth gathered from evils for the honor of the perfume, but so that, grumbling, you might show how you have fallen into such an evil misfortune. But it is not great, if you are distressed by the loss of three hundred denarii, from which, having taken thirty, you departed from the Lord. For, he says, 'What do you want to give me, and I will give you Him?'
Wretch, does a slave sell a master? The order is overturned; for I myself buy you from sin with my own blood, but you repel Him with thirty obols? Furthermore, does a man sell God? Let it be granted that He is being sold, but who is the one buying? How much will someone buy God for? And why do you make the matter a triviality? Someone sells God for thirty obols in the form of a man, as a servant, as a barbarian? Even if one distinguishes, how much is the God dwelling within, and how much is the man appearing?
'What do you want to give me?' he says. What do you want to receive? For they have nothing to give in exchange for God. And they stood before Him with thirty pieces of silver, he says. Someone sells a physician for thirty obols' wages, a physician blinding the eyes of the blind, raising the lame to run? I say these things so that I may catechize your mind, that you cause toil for the woman, because she honored Him who is free among the dead and, before death, as one dead, and through the perfume of the burial and the resurrection, she prefigured the grace.
But you shall have the fruit of betrayal, the rod; but her memory, wherever the gospel shall be proclaimed, shall remain undiminished. And the deed was spoken and done thus: that the offering of Aaron, the offering of Eleazar has ceased, the perfume and the horn have worked, but the alabaster of this woman is extended to the whole age, having the fragrance of memory undiminished.
But toward Judas, and toward the grumbling Pharisee, Christ says thus: 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' O unutterable grace! O unspeakable philanthropy! God and man are conversing, and He proposes a problem and a standard of philanthropy, dissolving its wickedness. For 'Simon,' he says, 'I have something to say to you'; I have something to say which is like none of the old ways.
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introduce grace alongside the law§7
7introduce grace alongside the law
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The Contrast of the Sinner and the Saint§8
8A sinner, forbidden to you but being saved in me? You let her enter your house—for the house is yours and not mine, full of reproach—she did not give water to my feet, feet which were dusty because of you, which endured toil so that I might free those who toil and are burdened. You brought half the price, marveling at the things above but not healing the things below.
But while you did not give water to my feet, she, by leaving springs of tears from her eyelids, washed away the filth of her sin. You did not give me a kiss, lest you be like Judas who accomplished the betrayal through a kiss; but she, from the moment she entered, did not cease kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, for a sinner's oil should not anoint my head. How could you honor the head while neglecting the feet?
But she also anointed my feet prophetically with myrrh; for myrrh, she says, empties its name for you; emptied, not poured out. Since the vessel of the Jewish mindset was shallow, therefore from your alabaster jar the myrrh was emptied into my feet, so that through me grace might participate in the fragrance among the Gentiles. For this reason I say to you: her many sins are forgiven; for while you, receiving me as an equal, neither honored me with a kiss nor healed me with ointment, she, receiving remission of many evils, honored me with tears and myrrh, like a vessel of two natures joined together.
Let us therefore bless the woman who covered the evils of Eve, the sinner, the fornicatress, the enemy of good things, who showed a way of repentance and stripped bare the law of philanthropy, having had the judge himself as her advocate, who conquered the wailing of judgment with tears. Therefore, all of you who are present, zeal for what you have heard, and do not imitate the pleasure of the fornicatress, but imitate the throne. For pleasure produced the throne, but the throne brought forth the solution to evils.
Wash not your bodies with water, but with tears; anoint not with ointments, but your members with purity. Clothe yourselves not in the fabrics of Tyre, but in the incorruptible garment of sobriety, so that you may share in that same glory, returning thanks to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to whom belongs the glory and the honor, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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