Monday, March 30, 2015


Monday of Holy Week


(Isaiah 42:1-7; John 12:1-11)


The woman spoke up at the request for intercessory petitions.  She prayed, “For my son who is being sent to Afghanistan in June.”  She realizes that the young man may be injured or even may encounter the unmentionable.   In today’s gospel Mary makes a similar gesture. 


The passage describes two very different responses to Jesus.  Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anoints the feet of Jesus with a liter of perfume and wipes them with her hair in preparation for his burial.  She recognizes that Jesus is, as her sister Martha proclaimed earlier, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Judas, on the other hand, cannot recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world.  He is blinded by greed which recognizes money as what needs saving.  Throughout the Gospel of John people are faced with the same challenge.  They have to choose between Jesus as the way to life’s goal or take another path in life, which will ultimately lead to dissolution.


Now that we have entered Holy Week we have to concentrate on the choice before us.  Let’s be sure that following Jesus is not always easy.  At times it will mean going against not just what the majority of people but even our own friends and family think.  The reason for doing so is, of course, that we have the joy and peace that Jesus’ companionship brings.