Homily for Monday of Holy Week

Most of the people who saw Jesus on that final week of His life were hostile to Him. But six days before the feast of Passover, during which Jesus was crucified, He experienced a very great kindness. Not only was He the guest at the table of a family that He loved, one member of that family, Mary, went to great expense to render Him a very thoughtful service. She anointed His feet with very expensive perfume and dried them with her hair. A little later in the same gospel, Jesus will wash the feet of His followers.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anticipated that servant-gesture of Jesus Himself. She offered Him a generous, loving service exactly like what Jesus would do for His disciples, and for all of us. Jesus interprets her generous act as preparing Him for His death and burial.

At the beginning of the last week of His life, He welcomed this act of kindness from Mary of Bethany. What she did for Him we are called to do for each other. On our own life journey, we may meet people who make things difficult for us. We will also experience people like Mary who support us on our journey, and, hopefully, we can do for others what Mary did for Jesus, a kind and generous gesture in an often-hostile world.+