The events in today’s Gospel happened after the raising of Lazarus, during dinner on the evening before Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosana!”, which we commemorated yesterday on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. At this dinner, Lazarus reclined at table with Jesus and Martha served. As for their sister, Mary, she was overwhelmed with gratitude for Jesus raising her brother, Lazarus, from the dead that she “took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair.” Mary’s actions are a reminder to us to be filled with gratitude for the many blessings that God bestows on us in our lives.
Mary’s response in faith, reverence, and love for Jesus, and the tremendous miracle that he had just performed in raising Lazarus from the dead, however, is in stark contrast to the response of the chief priests, who “plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.” Lazarus had become the source of faith in Jesus for the Jews, their reason to believe in him. This did not sit well with the chief priests so they sought to kill Lazarus. In other words, the chief priests wanted to snuff out the source of the people’s faith and belief in God. This was what happened to Judas the Iscariot, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reflected: “what happened to Judas is beyond psychological explanation. He had come under the dominion of another. . . he betrays this friendship (with Jesus) because he is in the grip of another power to which he has opened himself” (Ratzinger, p. 68). However, the Pope reflected: “the light shed by Jesus into Judas’ soul was not completely extinguished. He does take a step toward conversion” (id).
This should serve as a warning for us that there are things of this world, even the people that we know, that seek to extinguish the light of faith that we have inside our hearts and turn us away from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God sets before us “life and death, the blessing and the curse.” And the Lord God tells us to “[choose] life. . . by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Jesus “came so that [we] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us, his sheep (10:11). God died for us. That is the mystery of our salvation.
My sisters and brothers in Christ, that is the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death, and glorious Resurrection which we commemorate this Holy Week. In response to Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross for our salvation, let us respond to his love for us with our love for him, to show our gratitude to Jesus in a way similar to how Mary showed gratitude to Christ. Let us remind ourselves that if we ever go the way of Judas that there is always hope, that “[everything] pure and great that [we] have received from Jesus [remains] inscribed on [our souls]” (Ratzinger, p. 69). And so, let us ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to not allow anyone or anything to extinguish the light of faith that Lord and Savior Jesus Christ put in our hearts through the graces of the Sacraments of the Church.
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