The homily of James of Sarug in "Love that smells"

Holy Week celebrates the rites commemorating the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. On the day of Holy Monday, we propose the reading of "Amore che profuma. Omelia sulla peccatrice perdonata", a book containing the unpublished text by James of Sarug dedicated to the figure of the forgiven sinner, translated and edited in Italian by Tomas Szymczak, OFMConv., with a preface by Carmelite Craig E. Morrison.

"Craig E. Morrison writes: "In 'Amore che profuma' James imagines the encounter between Jesus and the sinful woman" (pg. 6) and Szymczak's translation "captures the passion of James' homily overflowing with metaphors" (pg. 7). The verses of the homily on the Gospel of the forgiven sinner by James of Sarug focus on the events that took place in Simon's house. It does not stop on the woman's inner struggle with the tempter who wants to block her in the street and prevent her from meeting Jesus.

James of Sarug, as Szymczak points out in the introduction, "puts the woman at the centre of his homily and presents above all her gestures, her actions carried out with passion and dedication" (p. 29). One of the strong points of the homily are the differences between what is visible and what is invisible, between what is in the depths and what emerges on the surface. James of Sarug explores precisely these issues with a 'language that makes it possible to see in the woman's gestures a liturgical action' (p. 30).

"Amore che profuma" is part of the series Life in the Spirit - series: Unpublished writings of the Fathers of the Church.

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AMORE CHE PROFUMA