At the feast in the house of the Pharisee Simon, a surprisingly conflictual scene unfolds: it showcases the comparison between the righteous man and the prostitute, the powerful man and the nameless woman, the law and the fragrance, the rule and love. Sister Maria from the Franciscan hermitage in Campello sul Clitunno repeated to her sisters: "Abandon the rule whenever it contradicts love. Our only rule is love." Only the gospel is capable of presenting such an unexpected conflict, in which the fragrance, the prostitute, tenderness emerges victorious. (…)
Jesus, who carried the emotion that the woman evoked in him, will not forget this: at the Last Supper, he will replicate the gesture of that unknown and beloved sinner – he will wash his disciples' feet and dry them. There is something magnificent and moving in this: God imitates the gestures of some woman.
(Ermes Ronchi /*1947/, Key Questions of the Gospel,
meditations delivered during spiritual exercises for Pope Francis and the Roman Curia, 2016)
