11/04/2022

I have always been embarrassed by Mary drying the feet of  Jesus with her hair. St John's account of the events commerated during Holy Week are different in many details from the other Evangelists. The important difference is in the timing which has occupied the minds of many scholars for centuries. Some have attributed the differences to the theological threads which can be followed in John, he still bears the title Theologian. 

The jar of costly nard is used by John to introduce the treachery of Judas, who is annoyed by the waste of money,as being premeditated.  Judas hypocritically attributes his annoyance to wishing to have used the money that could have been raised from its sale, to help the poor. It seems that poor Judas was a money-lover. Jesus' rebuke is still difficult to fathom. Is it a warning that we cannot hope by political means to bring about a human society in which there is equality of economic wealth ? We can be certain that it  does not mean that we should ignore the poor.

The reading from Isaiah is certainly a pre-figuring of the sufferings that Jesus has to undergo. The drying of the annointed feet with her hair is a unique event that is not recorded anywhere in the literature of the time outside the Gospels of John and Luke. The event was witnessed by the crowd of Jerusalemites who had followed the disciples to get a glimpse of both Jesus and Lazarus who had been raised from the dead.

Dear Lord let me come straight to you following the way of your graces. Let me know the essence and message  of the moments you spent on earth, Father Son and Holy Spirit in form of Man. Let me live life as you would have me live it in the avoidance of sin and with goodwill to all. May your mother and all the saints you have faithfully followed your ways on earth add their prayers to mine to help the sick and afflicted  in my family and in all the world.