HOMILY – MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Being Present to the Lord with Loving Palliative Care
(Isaiah 42:1-7; Ps 27; Jn 12:1-11)
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Monday of Holy Week, the readings increase in intensity, preparing us to celebrate the Great Triduum. They invite us to deepen our faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God and Suffering Servant whose greatest concern is to love and be loved.
In the first reading, we see once again the prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled in Jesus. He is the Servant of God, gentle and compassionate, yet strong and firm, who will give sight to the blind, free prisoners and bring justice to the world. His justice is not punishment but rather, restoring to creation what was lost in the fall of our first parents. Through his Passion, Death and Resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the love of Jesus would bring about this new creation of heart, mind and soul.
In the gospel, we are reminded of the special role that Mary of Bethany played in the last days of Jesus on earth. She alone was able to penetrate to the heart of the Paschal mystery because of her contemplative stance towards Jesus. While Martha was upset with her work, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, not so much hearing his words, but rather just aware that she was in the presence of the Word. That intimate relationship with him is what Jesus prized above all works and words.
We know when Lazarus died, it was Mary who drew out of Jesus tears and compassion that others could not. In her tender loving presence, he was free to show his emotions and his sorrow, as he felt her pain, and as she shared his. Here, we see her open a jar of costly perfume made of pure nard, anoint Jesus’ feet with it, and wipe them with her hair.
This account by St. John differs slightly from the unnamed woman in Mark’s account of the passion that was read yesterday, who broke open an alabaster yar and poured it out on Jesus’ head, but teaches the same lesson. Both are definitely extravagant gestures, as Whitney Houston used to sing. That nard may have cost a year’s wage – in today’s terms, perhaps $50,000. The release of that sweet scent that covered the feet of Jesus and filled the house was a symbol of the release of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that would follow the resurrection of Jesus. Mary’s intimate relationship with Jesus in prayer and love and affection, allowed her, as Thomas Keating puts it in his writings, “to penetrate into the heart of the mystery of who Jesus is.”
In purchasing this costly ointment, Mary, like Jesus, was operating not out of the rational, economic bottom line of society, but out of the supra-rational bottom line of love and relationship. She knew from the deepest level of her whole being, that there was something at stake here more important than all the money in the world, and that was her faith in and relationship with Jesus, who was about to die. No price would stop her from expressing that longing and love. Would that we could do the same.
There is another side to this extravagant gesture of Mary, and that is how it was perceived and received by Jesus, who defended her actions against her well-meaning but shocked detractors. Significantly, he told them she had kept this ointment for the day of his burial. What are we to make of this statement?
Interestingly, Alice Millar, author of the book Drama of the Gift Child, at the end of her career as a psychologist, almost disavowed her own profession, claiming that in the end, all that people really need to heal, is a “listening witness.” When people are heard, given attention, listened to and understood, something shifts inside and healing can happen.
God is love and intimate relationship. Jesus is the Son of God, divine, the Word made flesh, and so also totally focused on love and intimate relationship. Mary had an intimate, prayerful, loving, close relationship with Jesus. Within that love she intuited what was to happen to Jesus, felt in her bones what he was going through at that moment, understood his situation, and expressed compassion for him through that gesture of anointing him.
When Jesus experienced this unabashed love, compassion, and understanding, he felt loved in return, and on the strength of that relationship, as well as the blessings he had received from the Father, was now ready to die, and die well. This was palliative care at its best, something our society desperately still needs to learn, as has been made evident by the sorry state of our homes for the elderly during this pandemic.
The celebration of the Eucharist has elements of these readings in it. Through our worship, we are participating in that new creation that Jesus is bringing about for those who believe in and worship him. And we are filled with the sweet aroma of the Holy Spirit, forgiven, healed and sent forth to be bearers of this Good News of God’s love to all of creation.
