"Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Gospel of John
I don’t think anyone can underestimate the importance of the place we call home. I grew up in a farming community, and my parents owned a big two story farm house with two separate living spaces. My grandparents lived in one part, and my family of seven lived in the other. It was not a luxurious place by any stretch of the imagination. It had no indoor bathroom, just a couple of sinks with hot and cold running water. It was heated by an old wood furnace that did not distribute the heat very well and a wood stove in the kitchen. No one hung out in the bedrooms on a cold winter morning. But as a child growing up here, it was a place I felt safe. Home was were we shared family times, times with friends, three meals a day around the dining room table, a place to be when you were sick, a place to come too at the end of the day. I don’t remember a time when family was not around. It was indeed a place where I could feel away from the world.
Martha, Mary and Lazarus had such a home, and it was a place they often shared with Jesus. For this man who had no place to lay His head, this would be the place that represented home to Him. It was there, in the company of those who accepted Him as family, that Jesus would experience being away from the world and its demands, a place where he could relax.
The Gospel reading above took place in this home in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. In order to appreciate this short Gospel reading, we must also understand some of the events that surrounded this Gospel we have just heard.
Some days before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and this event had caught a lot of attention, particularly from the Jewish authorities. They were threatened by Jesus and the popularity He was gaining. Jesus was seen as compromising their strict religious practice and their rules, so now word was out that they wanted Him stopped.
Jesus and His disciples could no longer travel as freely. So they went to Bethany where they knew they would be welcomed.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus would certainly have been quite aware of the tensions Jesus was experiencing. They welcomed Him, as they had done many times before, as one of their own family.
Many of the events that unfolded there were really quite ordinary. A dinner is prepared and shared, as well as good conversation, gestures of love, acceptance, and support for the events of the past and those to come. Then Mary, in a very spontaneous way, did something that was quite unusual, that revealed to all the secrets of her heart. She found a jar of special ointment she had been saving, came and anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped the excess oil off with her hair. And it is said that the aroma of this oil filled the room, as I’m sure Mary’s devotion for Jesus filled the hearts of all who witnessed this event. Except for one. Judas’s heart was not there.
He missed the moment as we often do when we fail to see the actions of love because our hearts have been hardened with disappointment, resentment, and bitterness. Judas missed this gesture of faith, love and attentiveness given by Mary. Judas revealed only the coldness of his heart, his indifference to love.
He failed to understand that it is only through attentiveness and love that we become the spring board for transformation and healing. He failed to understand that what Jesus needed at that moment was to be strengthened by this simple attentiveness in order to fulfill the mission that was unfolding.
Judas’s condition is of course a warning for each to us. I’ve seen marriages that started out with such a spring-time of love turn to coldness and indifference. I’ve seen division among family members where past hurts manifested itself into long term animosities and unforgiveness. I’ve seen many examples in our secular culture where cynicism in respect to matters of faith, and negativity towards God leave lives without the meaning and purpose that God intended. We must guard against this happening to us; and it will not as long as we are attentive to God and allow the power of His love to transform our hearts.
It is particularly important that we not only see our churches as being homes for its members, but as places where others are welcomed; A place where they will be greeted, and accepted, a place where they may experience that sense of being at home.
Some may argue that our structures, dogmas, rules, or traditions are more important. But if we look closely at what draws people into community; at what transforms hearts into seeing and accepting Christ; it begins with that act of giving attention; those acts of greeting, welcoming, accepting those whom we encounter.
Others today would argue that we have a need for some fear and caution. After all, there are a lot of bad things happening in the world from which we must protect ourselves. And maybe, in some ways, this is true. But if we exaggerate these things, or fail to see them through the light of faith and God’s transforming presence, then like Judas, we can blind ourselves to the actions of love that are all around us. It is only in the presence of God, through faith, that we dare to let go, open the doors of our hearts to the fearless acceptance of whatever may come to us. When God is present, we dare to open the doors of our homes, our churches and our hearts to each other. Jesus’ mission, and the mission He assigned to all people of faith is exactly that.
From the first reading, Isaiah speaks of Jesus’ mission, and correspondingly, to the mission He gives to us:
“I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand and kept you. I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nation, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.”
To open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison are not just events to be taken literally. Freedom to see, to be free from darkness comes to each of us as we learn to place our trust in the one who journeyed to Jerusalem so many years ago so that we may experience the New Life promised by His Spirit. This same New Life He commissions us to share with others.
Ten years after moving out of that old farm house where I was raised, it was gutted by fire, and later demolished.
But the flames and the demolition did nothing to destroy that place and its sense of being home. Home had little to do with the old farm house with its two sinks and an old wood furnace. Home had to do with the life lived there, the connections established among family, the common care and concern expressed for each other which shaped each of our lives. That home still exists.
These actions of Mary that day in Bethany are alive to us because they speak of the connections that existed between two people: These actions of devotion, of love, that you can be sure, are in reciprocation for the kindness, love, forgiveness and compassion extended to her by Jesus.
These are the actions that create church, that make it a home, not only for its members, but all those who come there.
Gospel of John
I don’t think anyone can underestimate the importance of the place we call home. I grew up in a farming community, and my parents owned a big two story farm house with two separate living spaces. My grandparents lived in one part, and my family of seven lived in the other. It was not a luxurious place by any stretch of the imagination. It had no indoor bathroom, just a couple of sinks with hot and cold running water. It was heated by an old wood furnace that did not distribute the heat very well and a wood stove in the kitchen. No one hung out in the bedrooms on a cold winter morning. But as a child growing up here, it was a place I felt safe. Home was were we shared family times, times with friends, three meals a day around the dining room table, a place to be when you were sick, a place to come too at the end of the day. I don’t remember a time when family was not around. It was indeed a place where I could feel away from the world.
Martha, Mary and Lazarus had such a home, and it was a place they often shared with Jesus. For this man who had no place to lay His head, this would be the place that represented home to Him. It was there, in the company of those who accepted Him as family, that Jesus would experience being away from the world and its demands, a place where he could relax.
The Gospel reading above took place in this home in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. In order to appreciate this short Gospel reading, we must also understand some of the events that surrounded this Gospel we have just heard.
Some days before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and this event had caught a lot of attention, particularly from the Jewish authorities. They were threatened by Jesus and the popularity He was gaining. Jesus was seen as compromising their strict religious practice and their rules, so now word was out that they wanted Him stopped.
Jesus and His disciples could no longer travel as freely. So they went to Bethany where they knew they would be welcomed.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus would certainly have been quite aware of the tensions Jesus was experiencing. They welcomed Him, as they had done many times before, as one of their own family.
Many of the events that unfolded there were really quite ordinary. A dinner is prepared and shared, as well as good conversation, gestures of love, acceptance, and support for the events of the past and those to come. Then Mary, in a very spontaneous way, did something that was quite unusual, that revealed to all the secrets of her heart. She found a jar of special ointment she had been saving, came and anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped the excess oil off with her hair. And it is said that the aroma of this oil filled the room, as I’m sure Mary’s devotion for Jesus filled the hearts of all who witnessed this event. Except for one. Judas’s heart was not there.
He missed the moment as we often do when we fail to see the actions of love because our hearts have been hardened with disappointment, resentment, and bitterness. Judas missed this gesture of faith, love and attentiveness given by Mary. Judas revealed only the coldness of his heart, his indifference to love.
He failed to understand that it is only through attentiveness and love that we become the spring board for transformation and healing. He failed to understand that what Jesus needed at that moment was to be strengthened by this simple attentiveness in order to fulfill the mission that was unfolding.
Judas’s condition is of course a warning for each to us. I’ve seen marriages that started out with such a spring-time of love turn to coldness and indifference. I’ve seen division among family members where past hurts manifested itself into long term animosities and unforgiveness. I’ve seen many examples in our secular culture where cynicism in respect to matters of faith, and negativity towards God leave lives without the meaning and purpose that God intended. We must guard against this happening to us; and it will not as long as we are attentive to God and allow the power of His love to transform our hearts.
It is particularly important that we not only see our churches as being homes for its members, but as places where others are welcomed; A place where they will be greeted, and accepted, a place where they may experience that sense of being at home.
Some may argue that our structures, dogmas, rules, or traditions are more important. But if we look closely at what draws people into community; at what transforms hearts into seeing and accepting Christ; it begins with that act of giving attention; those acts of greeting, welcoming, accepting those whom we encounter.
Others today would argue that we have a need for some fear and caution. After all, there are a lot of bad things happening in the world from which we must protect ourselves. And maybe, in some ways, this is true. But if we exaggerate these things, or fail to see them through the light of faith and God’s transforming presence, then like Judas, we can blind ourselves to the actions of love that are all around us. It is only in the presence of God, through faith, that we dare to let go, open the doors of our hearts to the fearless acceptance of whatever may come to us. When God is present, we dare to open the doors of our homes, our churches and our hearts to each other. Jesus’ mission, and the mission He assigned to all people of faith is exactly that.
From the first reading, Isaiah speaks of Jesus’ mission, and correspondingly, to the mission He gives to us:
“I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand and kept you. I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nation, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.”
To open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison are not just events to be taken literally. Freedom to see, to be free from darkness comes to each of us as we learn to place our trust in the one who journeyed to Jerusalem so many years ago so that we may experience the New Life promised by His Spirit. This same New Life He commissions us to share with others.
Ten years after moving out of that old farm house where I was raised, it was gutted by fire, and later demolished.
But the flames and the demolition did nothing to destroy that place and its sense of being home. Home had little to do with the old farm house with its two sinks and an old wood furnace. Home had to do with the life lived there, the connections established among family, the common care and concern expressed for each other which shaped each of our lives. That home still exists.
These actions of Mary that day in Bethany are alive to us because they speak of the connections that existed between two people: These actions of devotion, of love, that you can be sure, are in reciprocation for the kindness, love, forgiveness and compassion extended to her by Jesus.
These are the actions that create church, that make it a home, not only for its members, but all those who come there.
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