Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:4b-14, John 12:1-8
Like last week, this week’s gospel reading also focuses on the lavishness. Like the prodigal father, Mary lavishly and generously bestows a gift upon Jesus, washing his feet with perfumed oil. In other readings, it does not appear that Jesus knows the woman, however, in Luke’s gospel, it is Mary, his long-time friend who does this act of preparation. While we know that Mary has always listened to Jesus, we’ve never been told of such a gesture of adoration and servitude. It is generally her sister, Martha, meeting the needs of others. In other words, this is not typical behavior for Mary.
Luke tells us repeatedly that none of the disciples or followers have understood what Jesus has revealed about his impending death. So Mary probably does not understand that she is preparing him for his death. What has made her think to do this? Was it totally spontaneous? Has a little voice been nagging at her? Either way, she appears to be following her own intuition?
In today’s first reading from Isaiah the Lord states, I am doing something new. It springs forth. Do you not perceive it? We live in an interesting age where there are so many new ideas, information and products that newness is actually ‘same-old-same-old’ to us. As Christians we generally interpret many of Isaiah’s passages to be referring to Jesus— He is indeed a new sort of leader, one that focuses on intentionally choosing to serve, one that turns everything upside-down.
Mary is serving Jesus in this passage, but is doing so by following her intuition, not by following the customs and conventions of the time. Her actions, on their own, don’t fully make sense. To follow our intuition, whether the action is totally spontaneous, or a little voice has been nagging at us for some time, may mean doing things we can’t fully explain, or that appear a bit illogical, maybe even a little inappropriate.
Meanwhile, because we are every character in scripture, just like in our dreams, we are also Judas. Judas is very similar to the eldest and jealous brother last week, who did not live in a paradigm of expansive generosity and resented those who did. However, whereas the eldest brother last week gets a bit of a talking to and climbs down, Judas actually takes action based on his feelings of resentment and jealousy. He was also following an instinct when he set up Jesus’ betrayal. He cannot tolerate Jesus’ paradigm of ‘upside-down-ness.’ Lent, and Holy Week in particular, invites us to reflect on both the Mary and the Judas within us. Who did we channel more of in the last year? Do we need to make any changes?
Journal Questions
When in the past year have you taken actions like Mary and when have you acted more like Judas?
What role does your intuition play in your life? Do you tend to follow it or ignore it? How might you characterize your communication with your intuition?
Explore your thoughts and feelings about whether or not the Lord is doing anything ‘new’ in your life.
Writing to Pray 