Monday in Holy Week

[cappie]

Monday in Holy Week offers a pause, a chance to recollect from the drama of yesterday before plunging into the sacred events to come. 

Today’s reading from Isaiah reminds us that we are all called to emulate this ministry. It is a struggle though; that is why Jesus’ actions were startling to the Romans and why we still find them challenging today. This prophetic call to liberate the sick, the imprisoned, and those who “live in darkness” is especially important as we look towards the crucified Jesus. He died doing what God asked of him. He liberated the sick, the imprisoned, and those who “live in darkness.”

 The Gospel of Liturgy today places before us the beginning of chapter 12 of the Gospel of John, which serves as a link between the Book of the Signs (cc 1-11) and the Book of the Glorification (cc 13-21). At the end of the “Book of Signs” there appears, very clearly, the tension between Jesus and the religious authority of the time  and the danger which Jesus was facing.  Jesus was obliged to lead a clandestine life, because He could be arrested at any moment.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany to the house of His friends Martha and Mary and of Lazarus. The police were looking for Him (Jn 11:57). They wanted to kill Him (Jn 11:50). Mary, Martha and Lazarus received Him in their house and offered Him something to eat. Because love overcomes fear.

During the meal, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with a pound a very costly perfume. Then she dried His feet with her hair. Mary does not speak during this whole episode. She only acts. The gesture filled with symbolism speaks for itself. In washing the feet, Mary becomes a servant. Jesus will repeat the gesture at the Last Supper (Jn 13:5).

Judas criticizes the gesture of Mary. He thinks that it is a waste. Three hundred denarii were the wages of almost a whole year spent in one time alone! Judas thinks that the money should have been given to the poor. The Evangelist comments and says that Judas had no concern at all for the poor, but that he was a thief. Jesus reads the heart and defends Mary.

Jesus thinks of the gesture and defends the woman:   Judas, the disciple, lived together with Jesus for almost three years, twenty-four hours a day. He was part of the group. Mary saw Him once or twice a year, on the occasion of some feast, when Jesus went to Jerusalem and visited her in her house. But to live together with, not having any love does not help us to know others. Rather it blinds people. Judas was blind. Many people live together with Jesus and praise Him even with many hymns, but do not truly know Him and do not reveal Him.