Bede

To what, then, shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another and saying: We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We wailed, and you did not weep. The generation of the Jews is compared to children sitting in the marketplace because they used to receive the prophets as teachers. Of whom it is said: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have perfected praise (Psalm VIII). And elsewhere, The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple (Psalm CXVIII), that is, to the humble in spirit. The Lord's marketplace or the synagogue, or even Jerusalem itself is where the laws of heavenly precepts were established. Where these children, according to Matthew, spoke to their equals, because they used to reproach their people daily with their own voices, they would not listen to the Psalms, first of David, nor after being corrected by the reproaches of the prophets. Whenever victory over the enemy was foretold or commemorated, they did not rise to the works of virtue. For by the word of dance is not meant the bodily gyrations of actors with swaying movements but the devotion of a zealous heart and the piety of agile members. Whenever the prophecies of calamities caused by future or present enemies resounded, and yet the listeners did not care to take refuge in remedies for penitence. The Psalmist sings: Shout with joy to God our helper, rejoice to the God of Jacob, take up a psalm, and bring the tambourine (Psalm LXXX), and so forth. But what follows? My people did not listen to my voice, and Israel did not attend to me (Ibid.). The prophet cries out: Thus says the Lord: Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping, and in mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments (Joel II). And again: My belly, my belly! I writhe in pain. The heart of my thoughts troubles me. I will not remain silent, for my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war (Jeremiah IV). And a little later: For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are senseless children, without understanding (Ibid.).

He asked him, he said, one of the Pharisees, to eat with him. And he entered the house of the Pharisee, and sat down. And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, knew that he was lying down in the Pharisee's house; she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Alabaster is a type of white marble, marked with various colors, which they usually hollow out for ointment vessels, because it is said to preserve them best incorrupt. It is found around Thebes in Egypt and Damascus of Syria, whiter than others, the best being from India. Some say that this woman was not the same one who, at the approaching Lord's passion, anointed his head and feet with ointment, because this one washed with tears and wiped with her hair, and is clearly called a sinner; about that other one, nothing similar is written, nor could a prostitute immediately be deemed worthy at the Lord's head. However, those who investigate more diligently find this same woman, namely Mary Magdalene, the sister of Lazarus, as John narrates, having been engaged in the same act of service twice. Once indeed in this place, when first approaching with humility and tears, she merits the forgiveness of sins. For John, although he did not narrate how, as Luke did, points out this very Mary, commending her where he begins to speak about her brother raised from the dead. "There was a certain man," he said, "Lazarus, sick from Bethany, from the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (Mary, however, was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair [John XI])." Secondly, in Bethany (for it happened first in Galilee), she is found not as a sinner now, but as a chaste, holy, and devoted woman to Christ, no longer anointing just his feet but also his head. This also agrees beautifully with the rules of allegory. Because each faithful soul, first humbled at the Lord's feet and freed from sins, bends; then, as merits grow over time, with the joy of fervent faith, it perfumes, as it were, the Lord's head with the scent of spices. And the universal Church itself, in the present indeed, by celebrating the mysteries of his incarnation, which is designated by the name of feet, renders devoted service to its Redeemer. But in the future, perceiving both the glory of his humanity and the eternity of his divinity, because the head of Christ is God, simultaneously with the perpetual praises of confessions, it glorifies him as with genuine nard. Therefore, he said, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment.

The very mystery of his incarnation can also be understood by the feet, by which divinity touched the earth, because it assumed flesh. For the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us (John 1). We therefore kiss the feet of the Redeemer when we love the mystery of his incarnation with all our heart. We anoint the feet with ointment when we praise the very power of his humanity with the good opinion of sacred eloquence. But the Pharisee sees this and envies. For when the Jewish people see that the gentiles preach God, their malice within melts away. But our Redeemer recounts to him the deeds of the woman, as if listing the good of the gentiles, so that he may recognize in what evil he lies. I entered into your house, you did not give water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with tears. Indeed, water is outside us, the moisture of tears is within us. For that unfaithful people never offered for the Lord even those things which were outside themselves; but the converted gentiles not only poured out the substance of things for Him, but also their blood. You did not give me a kiss. But since she entered, she has not ceased kissing my feet. For a kiss is the sign of love. And that unfaithful people did not give a kiss to God, because they did not want to love God out of charity, to whom they served out of fear. But the called gentiles do not cease to kiss the footsteps of their Redeemer, because they constantly sigh in his love. You did not anoint my head with oil. If we understand the feet of the Lord to signify the mystery of the incarnation, appropriately through his head divinity itself is designated. Hence it is said through the Apostle: the head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11). For the Jewish people professed to believe in God and not in themselves as in a man. But it is said to the Pharisee, you did not anoint my head with oil, because he neglected to praise with due glory the very power of divinity in which the Jewish people professed to believe. But she has anointed my feet with ointment. For while the gentiles believed in his mystery of incarnation, they praised with great glory even his lowest parts. Also, the two debtors, about whom the parable of Simon is put forth, designate both peoples, namely the Jews and the gentiles, who, to one lender, that is, to their Creator, owed not material money, but the coin of their own salvation. For our Creator, whom He created to His image and likeness, elevated them almost with a loaned coin to be preserved. For the coin is usually formed with the image and name of the king. But from everyone to whom much is given, much will be required; and from him to whom they much committed, they will ask the more. And indeed, the debt of both peoples is multiplied through the number five.

Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Indeed, faith has saved, because she did not doubt she could receive what she asked for, but had already received the certainty of hope from him from whom she sought salvation through hope. She is commanded to go in peace so that she might not be diverted from the path of truth to the way of scandal. These words may be understood historically, but let us now examine the mystical secrets. Whom does the Pharisee, presuming on false righteousness, represent if not the Jewish people? Whom does the sinful woman, coming to the feet of the Lord and weeping, signify if not the converted gentiles? Now, the Pharisee asked the Lord to dine with him because the same people who did not want to believe in His coming never stopped hoping for His arrival, indeed praying fervently that He might come, saying: "Stir up Your power and come to save us" (Psalm 79). To dine with the Pharisee is, for the Lord, to accept the devotion of the believing people. Hence, elsewhere, directing his speech to the believing Samaritans, He says: "I have food to eat that you do not know about" (John 4). And when they were mystified by His words, He explained: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work" (Ibid.).

But like the eagle, enticing its young ones to fly, our Lord, step by step, raises up His disciples to heavenly things. He first of all teaches in the synagogues, and performs miracles. He next chooses twelve whom He names Apostles; He afterwards takes them alone with Him, as He preached throughout the cities and villages, as it follows, And the twelve were with him.

Mary Magdalene is the same of whose repentance, without mention of her name, we have just read. For the Evangelist, when he relates her going with our Lord, rightly distinguishes her by her known name, but when describing the sinner but penitent, He speaks of her generally as a woman; lest the mark of her former guilt should blacken a name of so great report. Out of whom seven devils are reported to have gone, that it might be shown that she was full of all vices.

But Mary is by interpretation, "bitter sea," because of the loud wailing of her penitence; Magdalene, "a tower, or rather belonging to a tower," from the tower of which it is said, Thou art become my hope, my strong tower from the face of my enemy. (Ps. 61:3.) Joanna is by interpretation "the Lord her grace," or "the merciful Lord," for from Him cometh every thing that we live upon. But if Mary, cleansed from the corruption of her sins, points to the Church of the Gentiles, why does not Joanna represent the same Church formerly subject to the worship of idols?

For every evil spirit whilst he acts for the devil's kingdom, is as it were Herod's steward. Susanna is interpreted, "a lily," or its grace, because of the fragrance and whiteness of the heavenly life, and the golden heat of inward love.