At the feast in the house of the Pharisee Simon, a surprisingly conflictual scene unfolds: a pious man and a prostitute, a powerful man and an anonymous woman, the law and fragrance, rule and love are contrasted. Sister Mary 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 fragrance, the prostitute, and tenderness emerge victorious. (…)
Jesus, who carried away the emotion that woman stirred in him, will not forget it: at the Last Supper he will repeat the gesture of that unknown and beloved sinner – he will wash the feet of his disciples and dry them. There is something magnificent and moving in this: God imitates the gestures of some woman.
(Ermes Ronchi /*1947/, Klíčové otázky evangelia,
meditace pronesené při duchovních cvičeních pro papeže Františka a římskou kurii, 2016)
