Prison food is nutritious, but the guys in the local prison tell me it’s not very tasty. You can argue this is part of their punishment. If you feed them too well, you make prison life look good, and it won’t deter people from committing crimes on the street. Well, as a humanitarian gesture, prisoners may have food from the outside once a year. This meal is sponsored by one of the faith groups, though each prisoner pays his own way. We Catholics hope to sponsor an outside meal for about 30 prisoners in September. The food will be prepared by the deli of a local Cameron grocery. The State calls this meal a “banquet”. Now, I have no complaints about the local deli department; their food is fine. But put that food in the mouths of prisoners, and you would think you had just fed them at the most expensive restaurant in the city. It is far superior to any other food they have eaten all year. After our banquet, they go back to prison food. We hope the banquet will remind them that when they finish their sentence, and if they can stay out of prison, they can have outside food every day.

The prison system is based on a very simple principle of justice: If you commit a crime, you will be punished for it. After your punishment is over, you can go home. It is a good system, and it is one we need.

However, today’s gospel presents a different system. It has to do with sin, and you would expect it to go this way: If you commit a sin, you will pay for it; after your punishment, you will be forgiven. But in this gospel the system is different: A woman committed some sins. Then she received forgiveness. Then she paid for her sins with an act of charity.

Here’s the story: Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to his house for dinner, but he did not perform the usual acts of hospitality. Instead, a sinful woman walked in off the streets and went overboard: She bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair; she kissed them and anointed them with oil from an alabaster flask. The Pharisee said you shouldn’t let a sinner touch you like this. Jesus said she may have been a sinner, but she has been forgiven. And because of her forgiveness, she is showing her love.

A similar thing happens when you come to confession in the Catholic Church. You acknowledge your sins, and then you receive forgiveness. Then you perform some penance – you say some prayers or do an action that demonstrates your change of heart. After you are forgiven, you show your love.

Now, I’m not proposing that we change the prison system. We don’t forgive crimes before people have paid their debt to society. But sometimes in our relationships with other people, we treat them more like criminals than sinners. That is, we don’t forgive them until we punish them with our anger and scorn. Jesus offers a different model, and it’s very bold. It’s not appropriate in every circumstance, but sometimes it is. Don’t withhold your forgiveness until you have made people suffer. Forgive people; then watch their behavior change; watch them show their love.