“Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine
aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair.”
– Jn. 12:3
Mary of Bethany, sister of
Martha and Lazarus, is one of the most beautiful characters in the New
Testament. In Luke’s Gospel, she was the sister who sat by Jesus’s feet
listening intently to his words while Martha was busy with hosting
duties and complained Mary was not helping her. In today’s
Gospel, John describes Mary as anointing Jesus’s feet with so much perfume that
the fragrance filled the house and humbly wiping his feet with her
hair. These two stories give us a glimpse to how much she loved Jesus as
to becoming totally present to him and lavishly ministering to him.
Because of her single-minded devotion to Christ, she may be considered
among the first Christian contemplatives.
As we enter Holy Week
assessing how we lived out Lent this year preparing for the passion,
death, and resurrection of Jesus, we may have found some of our promises and
devotions lacking the enthusiasm it had during the start of Lent. Our
intentions were undoubtedly well-meaning, but life distractions and weariness
may have disrupted our plans. But it was precisely OUR plans – our plans
to pray more, to volunteer more, to give up sweets, to give up Facebook, to be
in solidarity more with the poor however it may have looked like. I look at the
ashes of my own Lenten plans and notice how it may have been a subtle form of
navel-gazing.
Mary of Bethany provides us a
beautifully simple model of preparing for the Paschal Mystery – not only
the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, but also the ones we experience daily – our
daily toils, death, and rebirth however big or small it takes shape. Holy Week
is an opportunity to perhaps reinvigorate our Lenten commitments, but it
may also be an invitation to set aside whatever Herculean acts of sacrifice
that allows us to be proud of ourselves and simply be present to
Jesus as Mary of Bethany was during his final days. Beyond Holy Week, each
of us may be called to different acts of sacrifices and services,
but all of us are called to a love of Jesus that resembles Mary’s simple
way. God does not long for our extreme sacrifices. God longs
for our hearts.
Lord Jesus Christ, may
the example and intercession of Mary of Bethany help us to be with you
beyond ourselves.
Michael Jamnongjit
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