From Brother Giles
We come to the holiest time of the year—the Holy Week. Jesus knows He is going to die. We can almost picture Him looking wistfully at everything: "This is the last time I will see this person before I die," or "I will never see this place again (until I see it new in the Kingdom of Heaven)." Reading the Gospels this week, we can almost picture Him saying His goodbyes.
And then we come to today's Gospel. The scene is so poignant: Jesus is with His friends, His clueless disciples, with His betrayer, Judas Iscariot. How much emotion He must feel!
Then there is the lovely scene where Mary breaks the alabaster jar and anoints His feet, then wipes them with her hair. What an intimate moment! Talk about receiving the attentions of a woman! And especially when, as a man, He needed it the most.
We cannot understand this act from our twenty-centuries-removed perspective. A Jewish rabbi of that time wouldn't even talk to a woman not his wife. He certainly wouldn't let one touch him. But Jesus allows Mary to perform such a deeply intimate act of love! Today, it's something we could hardly imagine even a married woman doing for her husband in the privacy of their bedroom—it's so intimate. Yet Mary did it publicly, and it was recorded in John's Gospel for all eternity. Why?
I think God wants us to understand the intimacy He wants to share with us, and we, with one another. The intimate act that Mary performed publicly was meant for us, to teach us not to be afraid to love deeply, intimately, profoundly. To be Eucharist to one another, just as Mary did for Jesus, and just as He did for us.
Jesus knows Judas is a thief, He knows he will betray Him. Yet He doesn't threaten the man, He (gently) rebukes him. "Let her keep this against the day of My burial." He wasn't talking about the aromatic nard, because the alabaster jar was already broken, and she couldn't put it back.
No, He was talking about the act of incredibly intimate love she performed for all the world to see. "Let her keep it (this act of intimacy, of shared love) against the day of My burial" because "By dying You destroyed our death, by rising You restored our life."
This act of intimacy, of a woman giving her loving attentions to a man, will live as an example for us to follow for all eternity, because by it, Mary placed herself firmly in this holiest of weeks. She followed Him to the Cross, mourned the man she loved and thought she lost, she saw the empty tomb and did not understand. Then she saw Jesus, and when He called her name, "Mary!" she understood.
May we follow her example during this holiest of weeks.
Additional commentary from Veronica, Sister in Christ Jesus
First on Jesus saying his goodbyes. It struck me how little people think about Jesus' humanity. I never thought about him thinking about such things, and feeling emotions about his end on Earth. I think we are so used to see Jesus mostly emotionless (with a few exception) and as a more or less robot who came here to check off a few items from his checklist (choose apostles, do miracles, teach, give sermons, cure, suffer, die, raise from the dead, go back home), without ever giving a second thought to his feeling and emotions.
This evening, during one of the prayer activities at church, the question was asked "What did God the Father feel seeing his Son die?" Again, something we don't really ponder. Jesus rose, so all was good, and we don't stop to think of the impact of the events. Also, Jesus experienced this world for thirty-free years. Even if he did raise, he left earth knowing he will not come back in this form for a very long time. That must have brought up some emotions for him.
Now, in regards to Mary, and connecting her gesture to Jesus' needs as a man. Again, it shows how little attention we pay to Jesus' human nature and his manliness, especially his masculinity as it relates to the femininity. Here, I would add the following.
Mary in this passage is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. The intimacy she was able to reach with Jesus in this scene didn't just morph out of thin air. It is a result of a personal relationship developed over time. For Mary to be able to offer Jesus this intimate moment, she had first to receive His word, His friendship, His love. She had to get to know Him at a personal level, and develop a deep trust with Him. Jesus, I would imagine, as a man, initiated and lead this relationship, while Mary received constantly with openness (as it is proven by the passage that focuses on her and Martha serving Jesus), up to the point she was able to offer Jesus this intimate moment.
This scene for me is also a great lesson in the beauty of humility. Feet aren't the nicest and most attractive body part. They smell, they are dirty, most times they are ugly. Most people would see in this act a deep humiliation. By making this act public, Jesus completely redefines humility (this, plus Him washing the feet of his disciples), and elevates it to the level of love. He also, in my opinion, elevates seemingly low-level / humiliating / degrading acts and activities of women (anything from cleaning toilets, to hand washing the husband's dirty underwear, to cleaning the child's poop of the floor) to the dignity of love. Jesus pointed out in Mary's gesture her dignity to love as a woman through each sacrificial gesture.
I would offer that wives wouldn't wash their husbands feet today (and vice versa) because many don't have that deep trust anymore, they no longer have a sacrificial love, and long lost has been the virtue of humility. In cases where the wife wouldn't do such an intimate act (or even give the husband a foot massage) I would ask: has the husband created a safe environment for his wife? Has he poured his love into her? Has he offered trust and gained her trust? Has he affirmed her in her femininity? Because Jesus did all that with Mary, long before the scene in today's Gospel.
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