Lent 2020

 

Reflection: Monday of Holy Week

STM Simply final_300We’ve made it to Holy Week. When you solemnly gave up chocolate on Ash Wednesday, did you think you’d be spending Palm Sunday palm-less, church-less, having fasted for weeks from some of the most central parts of your life? Or maybe having even been forced to give up some parts, like jobs or loved ones, for good? How do we face Holy Week with such aching hearts?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has dinner with his friends Lazarus, Martha, Mary, and the apostles. Everyone is still in awe of the resurrected Lazarus. Martha serves the meal. And Mary brings out a bottle of beautiful, expensive perfumed oil and lovingly anoints Jesus’ feet, drying them with her hair. 

Judas criticizes her, asking “Why was this oil not sold and given to the poor?” But Jesus defends Mary, saying “Leave her alone. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Jesus is not saying that we don’t need to care for the poor. But he sees Mary making the effort to sanctify one moment, to fall at his feet and love him. By defending her, Jesus tells us that this is never a waste of time. 

Expert predictions tell us that New York City will reach the peak of the Coronavirus bell curve this Thursday or Friday. This "Very Worst Day" will fall on the day that Christ will be in agony in the garden, handed over to death, and killed on the cross. The crisis will not be over then, but it will begin to turn around. And Jesus is right in the midst of it with us. Let us take this most difficult moment to live liturgically, to be like Mary and do our best to fall at the feet of the Lord and love him.

Katie Rich GRD '22

Katie Rich is a Yale Divinity School student working toward her Master of Divinity degree.