Lent 2019

 

Lenten Reflection: April 15, 2019

STM Lenten ImageIt is a mesmerizing image, not easily forgotten.

Mary beholds Jesus, moves forward to anoint him, lowers herself to pour expensive perfumed oil on his feet and dries them with her hair.

It is an extravagant act of love, free of all inhibition.

In this scene there are others. Mary’s brother, Lazarus, is reclining at the table, fully alive after having recently died and been raised from the dead by Jesus. Martha is busy serving dinner, surely a celebration of thanksgiving for all that Jesus has done to restore their brother to life. Judas, the disciple who would betray Jesus, asks the right question, however impolitic and self-motivated in light of the circumstances, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?” 

But it is Mary that draws and keeps our attention. Fully present in the moment, completely focused on Jesus, she is the essence of gratitude and unbridled love, the one we should emulate. Her action foreshadows what is to come: Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and his impending death, the anointing of his body and the piercing pain of loss for those who loved him. But in this moment, Jesus is alive, present, the object of Mary’s full appreciation and joyful attention.

Whom do we love? For whom are we grateful? When are we fully present? And in what extravagant ways throughout Holy Week will we demonstrate our unalterable gratitude for the central claim of our faith: in dying there is new life.

Kerry Alys Robinson '94 M.A.R.

Kerry Alys Robinson '94 M.A.R.

Kerry Alys Robinson ’94 M.A.R. is global ambassador of Leadership Roundtable and a member of the board of Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale.