RBWords

     Holy Week began yesterday with the dramatic entrance to Jerusalem, as told by the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, depending on the Sunday cycle.  We are in Cycle A, which means Matthew was our story teller that day.  He and the evangelist John will be our narrators for this week.  John does not mention the entrance event at all, but what he does narrate is vivid and poignant.  Today's gospel is a good example.

 

     Mary and Martha put on what turns out to be a kind of "farewell dinner" for Jesus.  By any title it would be remarkable because their brother Lazarus, newly raised from the dead by Jesus, is one of the guests!  Martha is her usual busy self in serving! [cf. Luke 10:38-42].  The drama, however, is focused on the actions of Mary who performs an extravagant gesture that goes beyond the usual hospitality of washing the feet of a guest.  She uses a very expensive ointment which probably brings a gasp from the guests!  It brings more than that from Judas who is contrasted with Mary.  Jesus' comment about being prepared for his burial outlines the symbolic nature of Mary's action.  The whole scene points to what will happen beginning in Chapter 13, which is where John begins his Holy Week narrative.  Note that it will begin with another foot washing!

 

     We are challenged to put together our own interior narrative of Holy Week.  John and Matthew give us a series of scenes or "snap shots" with background from Isaiah's eerie prophecies about a "suffering servant."  We can decide where we want to be in the narrative.  Do we simply recite it without any nuance, as if it was something that happened long ago, like reading an old newspaper article?  Or do we become actors in the narrative, even if our role is that of an observer?  After all, what happened in Holy Week happens now because we are being saved by what Jesus did and does!  AMEN