It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” While he was at Bethany in the House of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; Why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
Mark 14: 1 – 11
This passage presents us with two opposing forces that were quickly moving towards an inevitable eternal collision. One group, represented by the chief priests, scribes, and Judas. The second group, led by Jesus, and those who genuinely loved and followed Him. The woman (some say was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha) poured out the equivalent to an entire year’s worth of wages. This could have been her entire savings, possibly the dowry she was holding back to get married. Whatever the reason she had that much money, she spent all of that on one act of love. She knew Jesus was about to sacrifice His life – the Lord Himself said, “She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.” Tears must have been flowing profusely from her eyes; her beloved Jesus was talking about His burial. Judas was only concerned with the money. Judas loved money – John’s Gospel makes it clear that Judas was a thief. He stole from the common purse and must have been infuriated by this “waste of money” that he could have siphoned some off. That greed opened his heart wide to Satan’s most evil temptation: “Sell him for some money; you deserve it.” The world is still separated by these two groups. Let us ask ourselves sincerely, “Is there anything in my life that I value more than Jesus?” If there is, let us ask God to free us from that attachment so that we may be like Mary, and love Him purely. Let us ask Him especially this Holy Week, to help us give up that which we can never keep, to gain what we can never lose – His eternal love and forgiveness.
Let us pray with St. Gregory:
How blessed are the spiritual messages of the Psalms which recall,
“Happy the people whose God is the Lord!”
How sublime the exaltation of grace, “Your Saints shall bless you!”
How great the desire for an intimate kinship of spiritual communion
to hope in God and in the joyous words of the Psalm,
“The Lord fulfills the desire of all who fear him,” and
“The Lord preserves all who love him, but the wicked he will destroy.”
“The Lord lifts up the downtrodden, he casts the haughty to the ground.”
“The Lord takes pleasure in his holy people, and adorns the humble with victory.”
Where shall I stand?
“Love the Lord, all you his Saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but punishes the haughty.”
In what camp do I find myself?
For like the leaves of the cedar tree
wavering in the tempest, which streamed down in the battering winds,
so to the evil spirit tries to break the fruitful branches of my life’s upward striving,
shaped by your nurturing hand, O uncreated God.
Restore these broken branches and
let them take root in the field of life
under the care of your good will,
with a new fruitful innocence.
O Christ King,
who bestows all good gifts,
blessed forever.
Amen.
Prayer 61 C, D
