A number of us reflect on the weekday lectionary readings each Monday morning. We share our reflections for about an hour after silently reading the scriptures for about 20 minutes. There’s a wisdom that comes from that kind of sharing.

Tuesday of this week we hear the tender story of Jesus raising the widow’s son. Monday was the Feast of the Our Lady of Sorrows. Someone wondered if Jesus was especially sensitive to the widow who lost her son, because he knew his own mother was likely to lose her Son.

It’s interesting the connections you make by reading the scriptures and feasts together over the week. Our reading for Thursday is Luke’s account of the sinful woman who stands behind Jesus in the Pharisee’s house, bathes his feet with her tears and anoints him with precious oil.

“Doesn’t he know who this woman is?” the Pharisee says to himself. “This woman has great love because she has been forgiven,” Jesus tells him. She knows the gift of mercy given her.

Jesus went through the towns and villages of Galilee with his disciples and women accompanied him, Luke writes, and names three: Mary Magdalene, who was delivered from seven devils, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Cusa, and Susanna. Yes, many other women were with him, but those three are mentioned. Why those three? Were they influential women, big donors? Is that why they’re mentioned?

Or were they women like the one in the Pharisee’s house, Women who knew the great gift of mercy they were given?

As Jesus goes through Galilee his reception is mixed. Some are like little children in the marketplace, who won’t even look up from their games. (Wednesday)

Saturday’s reading describes the Sower casting seed on all kinds of soil, seeds of mercy and love. He casts seed in the house of the Pharisee, in the marketplace and on the soil of Galilee’s town’s and villages.

Numbers are not his concern. Mercy is.