Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - The Extravagance of The Cross

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 4/11/22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

JOHN 12:1-11

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet with perfumed oil, preparing him for burial.

This gesture—wasting something as expensive as an entire jar of perfume—is sniffed at by Judas,
who complains that, at the very least, the nard could have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Why does John use this tale to preface his telling of the Passion?
Why does he allow the odor of this woman’s perfume to waft, as it were, over the whole of the story?
It is because, I believe, this extravagant gesture shows forth the meaning of what Jesus is about to do:
the absolutely radical giving away of self.

There is nothing calculating, careful, or conservative about the woman’s action.
Flowing from the deepest place in the heart, religion resists the strictures set for it by a fussily moralizing reason
(on full display in those who complain about the woman’s extravagance).
At the climax of his life, Jesus will give himself away totally, lavishly, unreasonably—
and this is why Mary’s beautiful gesture is a sort of overture to the opera that will follow.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always
have me.”

The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there
and came,
not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away
and believing in Jesus because of him.+++