Monday During Holy Week, April 11, 2022

John 12:1-11

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.

It was the women who followed Jesus, more than the men, who understood him and what he came to do.  There were exceptions: the mother of James and John was firm in her belief in Jesus as a kingly messiah.  But we see in the words of Martha of Bethany the commonly held belief about him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who are come into this world” (John 11, 27).  We also see their faith in him after his Body was taken down from the Cross: “And the women that were come with him from Galilee, following after, saw the sepulcher and how his Body was laid. And returning, they prepared spices and ointments: and on the sabbath day they rested, according to the commandment” (Luke 23, 55-56).  Had they believed in him as an earthly king, their hopes would have been dashed by his Death and they would not have gone to the hard work of preparing to anoint his Body.

Mary’s service to the Lord in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass beautifully and clearly shows our duties to the Lord Jesus.  She brought into the dining room where the Lord reclined what the Greek calls a “Roman pound” of costly, aromatic nard.  This nard may have been imported from as far away as India, but another variety of the plant from which it was made also grew in Syria.  We see from the comment that Judas makes that it’s worth equaled nearly a fully year’s wages for a working man.  The Greek text is more specific: 300 denarii.  A denarius would be worth about $2.60 in today’s money, so the total amount would come to 780.00.  Few households at that time and place could have afforded to own a jar of perfume like this, telling us something of the family’s wealth, but also of their generosity.  Mary would have purchased this jar of ointment for this particular occasion and purpose.  Though a wealthy woman, she sat on the floor and “anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair.”  She abased herself to a degree lower than one of her slaves in doing this.  We see here acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord, as the Son of God, and no mere earthly king.  The nard represents her as it is poured unto his feet and rubbed into his skin.  She is saying with her action that she belongs entirely to him and to no one else.  She desires that her will always be in accord with his as the nard becomes inseparable from his skin.  

Judas objects.  “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?”  He poses an interesting question, one that predates  a question we sometimes hear today when a new church is built or renovated: Why are we spending so much money on a church when we should be giving it to the poor?”  The answer is that we can do both.  Here, the Lord commends Mary for her action.  Some of the Fathers comment that if Mary had asked the Lord what he would have preferred, her anointing him or selling the perfume to feed the poor, he would have said the latter.  But as Mary was already performing the action and the perfume was already poured out, he was certainly not going to rebuke her.  I think, though, that the Lord saw her action as a necessary one in that it foretold his coming Death and burial.

Some scholars believe that this account is the same as that found in Luke 7, 36-50, but it is clearly a different event.  The scenes for each anointing — by the sinful woman and by Mary of Bethany — are distinctly different, and the persons present at each are different.  The anointing themselves are different.  Further, Luke and John are very careful about their chronologies, and while Luke describes his towards the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, John places this one at its end.  The scholars in question approach this account with the supposition that there could be only one anointing, but no reason exists to suggest that, or even that the Lord was not similarly anointed by other people on other occasions, though these are not recorded.

Let us pour out the love in our hearts to the Lord Jesus and rub it into the skin of his feet with our prayers in our joy and gratitude for what he has done for us.