Today's passage is one of the most striking scenes in the whole of the Gospel.

We are told that a Pharisee - his name is Simon - was keen to have Jesus eat at his house.

Jesus accepted the invitation. We should notice that Jesus accepted invitations from both Pharisees and sinners. Today he accepts a Pharisee's invitation and also accepts the love which a sinful woman is giving him in the only way she knows how. Simon is utterly shocked; he only judges by the externals and by the external rules of his religion. Jesus reads the heart. He compares the attention which the woman gives him with the poor hospitality and respect shown by Simon. He points out that her actions are motivated by pure love. And, because she is so full of love, there is no longer any sin in her. Sin and love are incompatible. That is the ultimate criterion and not the external rules of religion.

It is so easy for us to judge people by their external behaviour and, even worse, by their external appearance or their status in society. We love to scapegoat (put the blame for our own sins on to others) and to stereotype (to classify people negatively by the labels we give them). Let us, like Jesus, see the real individual before us.