Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Then Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; against the day of My burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but Me ye have not always.’”
On this day of our Lord’s triumphal entry into the Holy City of Jerusalem, known by us moreso as Palm Sunday, we have preserved for us the preliminary event of our Lord’s anointing. It is a very costly act on the part of the four-day-dead Lazarus’ sister, Mary, as Jesus sat at supper with them in the family home in Bethany. We recall how just yesterday we heard how Lazarus lay rotting in his grave for four days before being called forth from his tomb, summoned by the verry Voice of Life from the corruption of death. “’Verily, verily I say unto you,’” we heard our Lord say just a couple of Saturdays ago, “’the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live’” (Jn. 5:25). “’For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,’” Jesus says, “’even so the Son quickeneth whom He will’” (Jn. 5:21). “’For as the Father hath Life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have Life in Himself, . . . .’” (Jn. 5:26). And so, as a preview of that which would be forthcoming, our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave life back to the four-day-dead Lazarus, restoring him to his sisters who had been mourning his death.
“’Marvel not at this,’” our Lord tells us back in chapter 5 of this Gospel (Jn. 5:28). And yet, it is, without doubt, a marvelous thing, a wondrous miracle. “This is the Lord’s doing,” sings the psalmist, “and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad therein” (Ps. 117 [118]:23-24). “And again I say, ‘Rejoice!’ . . . The Lord is at hand” (Pp. 4:4-9). So great a miracle was the raising up of Lazarus from the stench of mortal decay, that “a great many of the Jews . . . came [to the home of Lazarus and his sisters in Bethany], not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom [Jesus] had raised from the dead.”
Lazarus is alive! Jesus is present! Jesus was coming on the foal of an ass to the people of God! What more joy could there be at so great a thing? And yet, sadly, ironically, inexplicably, not all souls could rejoice in Lazarus’ resurrection from the grave. In fact, we’re told, “the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death [along with this Jesus], because on account of [Lazarus] many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.” What delighted the hearts of those gathered about Jesus at the table, infuriated the chief priests and others, causing them to be inflamed with murderous passion, and to plan the deaths of both Lazarus and his Lord! No rejoicing here! None absolutely whatsoever.
And, there was no rejoicing in the heart of one of Jesus’ disciples, that is, in the heart of Judas Iscariot the impious betrayer rendered stone-cold by avarice – his love of money – as the hymns of the Great and Holy Week of our Lord’s Passion say. There was no joy in his heart and no praise on his lips for the great outpouring and sacrifice of love for the Master by Mary. He stands squarely diametrically opposite her. He is in league with the detractors of Jesus and, by the end of this week, he will have joined their ranks in their Hell-inspired plot to kill the Lord of Glory (1 Cr. 2:8). Indeed, Judas is joyless at the great sacrificial gift of Mary to her beloved Lord Who had given back her brother. Judas feigns being incredulous at such luxurious waste (at least in his opinion) and offended by such lavishness, pretending to actually and truly care about the poor and needy when all he would do is manipulate them in order to pilfer from the treasury of the Disciples. “[H]e was a thief,” we’re told, “and had the money bag and took what was put therein.”
Can we imagine such joylessness? Can we imagine such joylessness pertaining to our Lord? Imagine, if you can, someone saying to us that whatever we spend to adorn the Lord, to glorify Him, is a waste – an extravagant and foolish expenditure – a waste of good money, of time and of effort perhaps. “’Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?’” Judas, you impious and avaricious soul, soon, very soon, you will sell your God and your Master – your Creator and Redeemer – for 30 pieces of silver! Is that all the Saviour of the world is worth to you? Thirty pieces of silver? Enough to purchase some land for a cemetery. Mary buys the most expensive ointment her money could buy for her love of Jesus – perhaps upwards of over a year’s wages, by some calculations – and Judas begrudges the gift that prepares our Lord for His Death and Burial! She is taking care of the One Who was rich but became poor for her sake and ours (2 Cr. 8:9). It is love for Jesus that compels Mary’s act of worship. But, Judas sees nothing but frivolous waste.
O, what ingratitude and thanklessness does to us, beloved. O, what warped and twisted lives do we live when greed and avarice take control of us, when we begin to covet and envy and lust which, St. Paul tells us, is nothing less than idolatry (Ep. 5:3; Co. 3:5; Hb. 13:5). Is not the apostolic word true? “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the Faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tm. 6:10). Let us be careful, beloved, that we be thankful for all the mercies and blessings of God bestowed, unworthy as we are. Let us grow and mature in the spirit of thankfulness and gratitude, learning from the Master Himself to be content, at peace and at rest with His extravagant graces, not paying attention to what we think we lack but rejoicing in our fullness freely, lovingly, unworthily bestowed on us sinners, even the most holy and precious Body and Blood of God the Son!
Beloved, the spirit of Judas has sadly prevailed in the American churches too long under the guise of “good stewardship.” But, I say to you, had our Lord had felt as Judas, here now was the opportune moment to set Mary – and us – straight. To say to Judas, “You know, you’re right. Mary, go give that to the poor and needy.” But, He did not. In fact, He defends her extravagance for His sake. Why? Because the poor will always be here to share our alms with. That is simply a reality.
We will always have opportunity to bless others. In St. Matthew’s and St. Mark’s Gospels, Jesus promises, “’Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial of her’” (Mt. 26:13; Mk. 14:9). And, indeed, to this very day the Church fondly remembers her loving, gracious, and extravagant gift to the Jesus about to be betrayed into the hands of men by His own Disciple! But, where is the memory of Judas and all those like him? The only stewardship that is good, my beloved, is a stewardship of heartfelt love for God to which there are no bounds, no limits, no restrictions. For is this not how God loves even us, ungrateful and thankless sinners though we be (Jn. 3:16)? There is a beauty to her action that the Judases of this world do not nor cannot understand because they are loveless (except for themselves) and are uninspired by the holy and the divine, by grace itself.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, ‘Rejoice!’ Let your graciousness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” And what will happen if we heed this apostolic counsel? Paul tells us. “[A]nd the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. . . . [T]he God of peace will be with you” (Pp. 4:4-9).
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God,
have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
VIGIL PROPERS: PROPERS:
Gn. 49:1-2, 8-12 Pp. 4:4-9
Zp. 3:14-19 Jn. 12:1-18
Zc. 9:9-15