Monday in Holy Week 2021
“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.”
The cost of this perfume irritated Judas. “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”
The impetus to serving the poor, among the many important issues of justice, does not stand in tension with the Gospel when one sits at the feet of Jesus in intimate servanthood to Him. Loyalty to Jesus does, however, expose any self-interest in the act of apparent servanthood. Jesus exposes Judas’ self-interest, in contrast to Mary’s prophetic act of anointing Jesus’s feet. Her true act of prophetic, apostolic devotion is for the sake of nothing more than ordering one’s desire to love.
Mary’s model of discipleship is not practical, but neither is Jesus’ ministry to the world. His love isn’t practical, it’s overwhelmingly prodigal, wasteful, abundant.
Is there any self-interest in my servanthood to Jesus? If so, I must return to the feet of Jesus before I consider any line item on the parish budget, or my own personal budget, for that matter.
As I enter into Holy Week, I pray for the grace to sit as Jesus' feet and smell the fragrance as I bask in the witness of Mary, who knew the abundance of God’s love. Help me, Lord, to surrender even more to your merciful provision.
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