MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil . . . and anointed the feet of Jesus. 

If you want to talk about different personalities, this passage is a perfect example. On the one hand, there is Mary, the sister of Martha. She is completely focused on Jesus. We’ve already seen her sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to him, while Martha does all the serving (Luke 10:38-42). In today’s Gospel, Mary breaks out a very expensive jar of oil and anoints Jesus with it. She loves him so much that she will spare no expense for him.

On the other hand, there’s Judas. An apostle, handpicked by Jesus, he had started out well enough, but something happened. He is still following Jesus, but his devotion isn’t what it used to be. He doesn’t seem to see Jesus as worth everything, as Mary did. Instead, he focuses on the cost of the oil and what could be done with the money it might bring in. He is with Jesus but is holding back. And so he can’t seem to embrace the sacrifice involved in worshipping Jesus.

Where do we fit in this picture? How much do we value Jesus? Of course, we want to be like Mary. We want to be completely unselfish. We want to give everything we have so that we can follow the Lord. And yet, like Judas, we are tempted at times to go our own way or to keep something back for ourselves.

It’s Holy Week. And that makes it a good time to look for ways to imitate Mary’s devotion. Especially this week, don’t hold back. You can’t anoint Jesus with expensive oil like Mary did, but you can still worship him. You can still invite him into areas of your life that you might have kept sealed off in the past. You can still commit yourself to love and follow him. You’ll find that the closer you get to Jesus and the more of your heart you give to him, the less important other things will seem. Like Mary, you’ll want to give him everything.

“Lord, I want to worship you with my whole heart. I give myself to you completely!”

Isaiah 42:1-7
Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14
John 12:1-11