WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:09.119 Today, the Church celebrates an optional memorial Saint Robert Bellerman, whom the Church remembers as one of the greatest Catholic minds of his age. 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:18.399 He was born in Italy in 1542, became a Jesuit, a professor, a theologian, bishop, and cardinal, and eventually was declared a doctor of the Church. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:24.719 He lived during one of the most turbulent periods in Christian history, the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.920 Catholics were being challenged with serious questions. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:29.519 What is the Church? 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:31.440 Where does authority come from? 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:32.880 What are the sacraments? 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:34.320 What is grace? 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.200 What do Catholics actually believe? 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.280 Bellerman became one of the Church's greatest defenders and teachers. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:47.840 He wrote extensively, he debated, he taught, he helped generations of Catholics understand their faith. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:51.520 But today's readings raise an uncomfortable possibility. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.600 You can know a great deal about Christianity and still miss the mark. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:57.840 Look at Simon the Pharisee. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.479 Jesus is sitting in his house. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:03.759 Jesus, think about that. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.359 Simon has invited the Son of God to dinner. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:13.920 He knows religion, he knows the law, he knows what respectable religious behavior should look like. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:16.000 And then this woman enters. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:18.799 Everyone apparently knows her reputation. 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:21.760 Luke simply calls her a sinful woman. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:30.319 She begins to weep, she washes the feet of Jesus with her tears, dries them with her hair, kisses them, and pours expensive ointment upon them. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:38.799 And Simon looks at the whole scene and thinks, If Jesus really knew what kind of woman this was, he would never let her touch him. 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:43.280 But Simon has completely misunderstood what it is happening. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:46.079 He thinks Jesus does not know who she is. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.640 Oh, Jesus knows exactly who she is. 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:53.920 What Simon does not understand is that Jesus also knows what grace can make her become. 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:55.680 And that's the difference. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:57.680 Simon knows her past. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.920 Jesus sees her future. 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:01.760 And that takes us directly into St. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:03.519 Paul's words today. 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:07.760 Paul gives us one of the earliest summaries of the Christian gospel. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:09.759 Christ died for our sins. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.919 He was buried, he was raised on the third day, he appeared. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:15.439 That's the heart of the faith. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:16.800 That's the charisma. 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:21.360 Christianity is not fundamentally a philosophy or a moral improvement program. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:22.240 Something happened. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:23.599 Jesus Christ died. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:25.039 Jesus Christ was buried. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.039 Jesus rose from the dead. 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:31.520 And Paul says, I received this and now I hand it on to you. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:36.719 That's tradition with the capital T in the most basic sense. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:41.120 We received something we did not invent and faithfully handed on. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:44.800 Robert Bellaman spent his life doing precisely that. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.520 But then Paul suddenly becomes personal. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.400 He says, I'm the least of the apostles. 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:51.120 Why? 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:54.400 Well he says because I persecuted the church of God. 00:02:55.039 --> 00:03:01.439 Paul never forgot where grace found him, but neither did he allow his past to become his identity. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:07.759 And then comes one of the most beautiful sentences By the grace of God I am what I am. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:16.080 That could be almost the sentence connecting all three people today Paul, the woman in the gospel, and Robert Bellaman. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:22.400 Different lives, different centuries, different sins, gifts, and vocations, but the same grace. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.120 By the grace of God I am what I am. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:27.919 And Paul adds something we should not miss. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:33.680 His grace to be, his grace to me has not been ineffective. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.560 In other words, grace did something to him. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.000 That's the question today's readings place before us. 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.479 What has grace done to me? 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:48.319 Not simply do I know the creed, do I know Catholic teaching, do I say my prayers, do I come to mass? 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:50.000 Can I defend the church? 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:51.599 Those things matter. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.159 Bellerman devoted his whole life to them. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:58.319 But Catholicism cannot simply be information stored in the head. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:03.840 Eventually the gospel has to travel those difficult eighteen inches from the head to the heart. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:15.039 Simon knew religion, the woman knew mercy, and Jesus seems far more interested in what mercy has produced in her than in what Simon knows about everyone else's sins. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.079 That's a dangerous territory for religious people. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:25.040 Because after years of practicing the faith, we can become very good at identifying what is wrong with everyone else. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:34.639 We know who is living correctly, who's not, who belongs, who doesn't, who has disappointed us, who has made mistakes, who has a past. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:43.120 Without realizing it, we can become Simon sitting at the table with Jesus while completely missing what Jesus is doing three feet away. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:47.120 Robert Bellerman reminds us that truth matters. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:48.720 We should know our faith. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:51.439 We should study it, we should be able to explain it. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:55.600 We should never be embarrassed by the intellectual richness of Catholicism. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:03.600 Today's gospel reminds us why the truth was given to us in the first place, so that we might encounter Jesus Christ. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:10.879 The woman walks into that house carrying an alabaster jar, but she walks out carrying something infinitely greater. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:12.959 Your sins are forgiven. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:14.959 Your faith has saved you. 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:16.399 Go in peace. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:20.959 Perhaps that is the examination of conscience for all of us today. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:35.439 After all, the masses I have attended, all the prayers I have said, all the Catholic teachings I have heard, all the years I have known Christ, am I becoming more merciful, more humble, more capable of seeing what grace can do in another person? 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:41.680 Because we can know every answer in the catechism and still miss the person kneeling at the feet of Jesus. 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.000 Saint Robert Bellamin, teach us to know the faith. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.120 Saint Paul, teach us to hand on the faith. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:58.480 And that unnamed woman in the gospel, teach us something just as important what it looks like when the faith finally reaches the heart. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:05:59.439 Amen.