Monday in Holy Week

Henry Thoreau once said: Most people live lives of quiet desperation.  But it can also be said that most people live lives of quiet drama.  Underneath the surface, our lives are formed by deep currents which carry us to yet unknown endings and culminations.  This is a level of drama, filled with conflicts, choices, detours, and tensions which all play a part in working towards a final conclusion.  We may have a sense that I know where this is going, but the process has to unfold and be allowed to reveal itself as it goes.  We may have an idea of where we are going, but how we get there is still an open question.

Jesus utters a dramatic statement in today’s Gospel:  the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me with you. (When the bridegroom is taken away from you, then you will fast and mourn.)   A radical event is on the horizon and imminent and it will affect you.  It will enter the drama of your life.  The surface level has been pierced and revealed for its fragility and contingency.  Many are “there” at the house in Bethany without understanding what binds them to the deep level in which God is playing the leading role. Martha is busy with preparing the meal.  Lazarus has become a celebrity whom many come to see.  Judas cannot see beyond the range of his self-serving evaluation of loss of potential wealth and power.  Mary herself does not fully understand the meaning of her anointing the feet of Jesus.  It is Jesus who interprets its significance in terms of the drama he is living out, for the day of my burial.

Jesus sees and interprets Mary’s selfless act and service as reflecting the utter outpouring of love which will be asked of himself in the conclusion of his drama.  It will be an act which is totally regardless of cost, which has its meaning in itself as an expression of love.  I love because I love.  The aroma filled the house.  It is universal and cosmic, filling the house.  The drama of Holy Week is our drama, the interpretation which Jesus gives of what seems beyond explanation and understanding.  The drama which invites us to participation, not just viewing.