Monday, April 14, 2025

Monday of Holy Week

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

“…the house was filled with the fragrance of oil.”  What the evangelist seems to say here is that the world will be soon filled with awe. Jesus, a young man who has never done anything to regret, takes upon himself the sins of the world. He will die shortly on the cross in a sacrifice so great that it justifies a world of sinners.

By his act of subjection to the Father, Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah in today’s first reading.  His goodness is like a light that opens the eyes of the world.  The giving up of self for the benefit of others brings people out of the confinement of themselves. They see the unsurpassable beauty of selfless love.

As we have benefited from Christ’s love, we should tell others about it.  This is best done by imitation.  It is not easy to give of self for the sake of others, but it has lasting benefit.  It facilitates their salvation as it moves us along the path of eternal life.

Monday, April 3, 2023

 Monday of Holy Week

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

One of the features of Holy Week is the use of the four “Servant Songs” from the second part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.  They are read at mass today, tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as yesterday. The Songs describe one whose suffering brings vicarious justice to Israel.  Because he is never named, interpreters have given him various identities like Jeremiah or even corporate Israel.  Christians have little difficulty in seeing him as an archetype of Jesus.

Today’s “Song” features the gentleness and the luminosity of the Servant.  He is so sensitive that he does not raise his voice when he teaches.  Gently and persuasively, he gives light without creating heat.  That light enables those blinded by pride to see the truth, those imprisoned by prejudice to find goodness in enemies, and those confined to the dungeon of ignorance to learn the glory of God.

In today’s gospel Mary, the sister of Lazarus, exhibits a particular sensitivity to Jesus as the Suffering Servant.  She anoints him before his impending death that she is somehow able to perceive. 

Monday, April 18, 2011

Monday of Holy Week

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

In one of last week’s gospel passages, the Jews become indignant to think of themselves as slaves of anyone. Their rejection of the term is ironic mostly because the Jews indeed lived as a subjugated people for swaths of history but also because they have seen themselves as the corporate Servant of the Lord as pictured by Isaiah in the first reading. Christians have not been reluctant to see Jesus and themselves as slaves in a metaphorical sense, at least.

In our minds we may distinguish servant from slave but in Hebrew the same word serves for both. A servant in ancient society was not a free person who hires him or herself out for domestic work but a person owned by a household. It was a degrading position as countless witnesses of American slavery attest. Yet Jesus put himself in the position in as much as he did the dirty work for the salvation of the world. In the gospel Jesus does not flinch from being anointed with costly oil because he knows that he is about to suffer in a worse way than the most abused slave and also because he is aware of the good intentions of the person who anoints him.

As much as Jews since the Holocaust see themselves as God’s corporate Servant of the Lord, the Church identifies with Jesus, whose life and death clearly reflect the description in Isaiah. We serve the world by deeds of justice and charity. When we support a poor child in Honduras or campaign for worker rights in Mexican maquiladoras, we add further testimony that Jesus brings justice to the nations.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Monday of Holy Week

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

When Judas grumbles that the nard used to anoint Jesus might have been sold with the proceeds going to the poor, he commits an error common today and perhaps throughout history. Judas, like many of us, fails to recognize Jesus as a poor person. Marked for immenent death, Jesus suffers a particularly virulent form of poverty for even the rich need time to enjoy the consumption of their wealth.

Jesus tells Judas that the poor will always remain on the earth. In another gospel passage Jesus says that he too will be with his people “always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We do well to connect these statements with another saying of Jesus perhaps even more familiar, “...whatever you did for one of these least brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). These quotations remind us that Jesus remains among the poor so that if we would treat him well, we must take care of the needy.

The “preacher to the papal household,” Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., considers service to the poor part of true Eucharistic devotion. He writes that in adoration of the Eucharist, Catholics worship Jesus as true God, and in assisting the poor, we worship him as true human. To exemplify Jesus’ close identification with the poor, Fr. Cantelamessa cites a final episode in the life of the famous French Catholic philosopher, Blaise Pascal. As he lay dying unable to keep down even a tiny part of a host as Viaticum, Pascal proposed a workable substitute. He asked that some poor persons be brought into his presence. Since he could not communicate with the Head, he said, then he would “communicate at least with the body.”

homilette for March 17, 2008

Monday of Holy Week

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

Pope John Paul II has been called the person most seen in all of history. Although, of course, there are no official statistics, the statement can hardly be doubted. In many of his one hundred and four apostolic journeys outside Italy, he appeared before millions of people. It is hard to imagine anyone – even emperors or athletes -- having larger audiences.

The costs of the pope’s travels often provoked criticism. He did not stay at Ritz-Carlton hotels, but necessary security measures entailed the spending of millions of dollars to accommodate a papal visit. When he visited poor countries like Kenya or Timor, people wondered -- as Judas does in the gospel today -- whether the money should not have been spent in direct relief of the poor.

Surely, however, such criticisms are myopic. The pope did much more for the poor on his travels than possibly could have been accomplished if all the expenses were summed together and the money paid to Catholic Relief Services. Everywhere John Paul II went, he preached care for the poor. His gracious presence to many indigent people lifted their minds and hearts beyond the squalor of their daily lives. The first reading speaks of the Suffering Servant “establish(ing) justice on the earth.” In imitation of Jesus, John Paul’s apostolic journeys fulfilled this prophecy by calling rich and poor to solidarity in Christ.