Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C.  June 17, 2207.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 7:30, 9:30, 6PM.  2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13.  Galatians 2: 16, 19-21.  Luke 7: 36 – 8:3.

A few weeks ago I brought home a new puppy.  He is a Great Pyrenees Sheep Dog like Shadrack was.  I traveled to Cokato to get him from a farm that raises working and guard dogs. I was told by the owner of the farm that they do not raise pets, even though Great Pyrenees make wonderful, loving pets.  Their dogs are raised to live outside with the sheep, goats and other herd animals, to guide them, keep them safe and protect them from wolves and coyotes.  The dogs sleep outside in summer storms and the winter snow to watch over the sheep.  They are always on the move and always working.  My puppy Amos has seven brothers and sisters.  Amos came to Edina where he will never have to sleep outside in the rain and snow unless he wants to.  He will never have to work herding sheep.  He will never have to fight off wolves and coyotes.  He will eat only premium lamb and rice dog food.  When I told all of this to the children in the school I asked what they thought that Amos would be doing on most hot summer afternoons.  One boy said, “I think he will sleep under a tree in the shade all afternoon.”   The truth is even better.  Even at two months old Amos knows enough to come into the house and sleep in front of the air conditioner.  A few days ago Amos tried to drag the blanket I gave him from the kennel in the yard through the dog-door into the house.   It was obvious that he had decided to move up in life, from the kennel to permanent residence in the house.

I asked the school children if they thought that Amos was better than his bothers and sisters who will have to work on farms and ranches in the heat and the cold.  They all agreed that Amos was not better, he was only luckier.  I then asked them, “What about you?”  “Are you better than children who do not have enough food, or a good home, or a fine school?”   We all agreed that we are not better than other people.  The fact is that God has been very good to us.

Simon the Pharisee in today’s gospel was upset because Jesus was kind to a woman who was very obviously a well known sinner.  The woman had had a rough life, either by her own choice or because she had not been given the many blessings that Simon enjoyed.  Simon was able to stand in judgment over the woman because he forgot that he was also dependent on the goodness and mercy of God.  God had blessed Simon with wealth and prosperity.  God had blessed Simon with a deep understanding and respect for God’s commandments.  God had blessed Simon with a place of honor in the Jewish community.  Simon had forgotten that he was not better than other people; he was luckier and more richly blessed.   God has mercy on each of us in his own way.  We all stand in need of the mercy and kindness of God.

Jesus said, “Simon, I have something to say to you… Two people were in debt to a certain lender; one owed him five hundred days wages and the other owed only fifty.  Since they were both unable to pay the debt, the lender forgave both of them.  Which of them will love the lender more?”   Simon said, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven…..”  “Jesus said, “Do you see this woman?  When I entered your house you did not give me water to wash the dust from my feet.  But she has bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them dry with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss in greeting, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I entered. … Her many sins are forgiven because she has loved much.   But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

It is indeed strange that Simon who had been so richly blessed by God, loved God less than the sinful woman who may well have been through hell in her life and only wanted forgiveness.  We who have been richly blessed by God from the day of our birth may forget that God has been merciful and kind to us day after day in our lives.  We are all dependent on the goodness of God.  Thanksgiving not only keeps us from judging ourselves as better than others, it also helps us recognize and rejoice in the gifts that we have received.  The wise person recognizes his or her dependence on the mercy of God.

One of the blessings we received without earning it is the gift of a father.   Those who have not received the blessing of  an active and loving father in their lives know how blessed we are even though we may take a good and loving father for granted, without thanking God for this immense blessing.  Pope John Paul II was one of the outstanding worldwide leaders of the last and present century.  His funeral may well have been the most attended and watched funeral in human history.  Pope John Paul’s mother died when he was in third grade.  The future pope was raised by his father who never remarried.  Pope John Paul said that 'above all’ he was grateful to his father.  He went on, “We never spoke about a vocation to the priesthood, but his (my father’s) example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of seminary at home.”   Pope John Paul said that he learned from his father that manliness and prayerfulness were not opposites.  He remembered his father as a “man of constant prayer.”  At night and in the early morning the future pope would find his father on his knees praying silently. Father and son read the Bible together and prayed the rosary often.  By example, much more than by instruction the Pope’s father taught him that the Church was much more than an institution.  It was a sacred heritage to be cherished and served.   Pope John Paul received from his Dad the instinct and the sense of responsibility essential to being a good father.  Being a father meant rejecting the poison of selfishness and being conquered by love.  The pope’s father died before the future John Paul decided to become a priest and a long, long time before he became the Pope who was “father” to the whole human race.   This almost unknown father of one of the greatest people of our time reminds us that fathers are immensely important in forming good and heroic children, children who will bless and transform the human race.  For the gift of fathers we give God thanks and praise this Father’s Day.