MARY OF BETHANY'S HUMBLE SACRIFICE

Monday, Holy week/ 2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Theme: Mary of Bethany’s Sacrifice of her Pure Nard

We follow the events in Bethany sixth day before the Passover in the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Jesus visited with his disciples and was at the table with Lazarus while Martha waited on them. Mary holds our attention again by her actions. Recall that she did the same thing in one of the Lord’s earlier visits to the family when she took her position at the feet of the Lord and left her sister Martha to do all the cooking and serving. She listened with rapped attention to the teachings of the Lord. The Lord came to her defence, when Martha got perplexed with too much work and complained to him about Mary and her attitude. Our Lord enlightened Martha on the importance of listening to the word of God, and explained that such an engagement has priority in the list of human activities. The event recorded in the gospel reading shows that Mary’s preoccupation with the word of God paid off. Constant listening to the word of God has developed her listening and following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We immediately contrast her development in this virtue to Judas’ deterioration in the vice of inattentiveness to the word of God and lack of understanding in spiritual things and values. “Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was full of the scent of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot—one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him—said, ‘Why wasn’t this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor?” Jesus again defended Mary, praised her action, and rebuked Judas’ outburst and blindness to spiritual values. “Leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.”

Imagine the outpouring of love symbolized in the action. By constantly keeping the company of the word of God, Mary developed spiritual faculties for listening and following the promptings of the Spirit of God. Mary proved a faithful disciple of the Eternal Word better than Judas Iscariot. The mission of the Son of Man, the faithful servant of Yahweh, was successful in the life of Mary. As Isaiah prophesied in the first reading: “I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand and formed you; I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations, ‘to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.’” Listening to the word of God opened Mary’s eyes and helped her to develop a deep spiritual love and connection with Jesus Christ, making her part of his redemptive mission. Our vocation is to keep the company of the word of God, to become one with Jesus Christ and participate fully in his redemptive mission to others. Our Lord derived immense consolation from this loving action of Mary of Bethany to the extent that he rewarded her generous spirit by divinely decreeing the inclusion of her action in the preaching of the Gospel all over the world in praise of her. Mark recorded this in his Gospel. “I tell you solemnly, wherever throughout all the world the Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told also, in remembrance of her.” We are to learn from the life of Mary of Bethany to prioritize the word of God in our lives to play our role in the coming of the kingdom of God. 

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to offer our lives to your Son, who offered himself to die for our redemption.