Homily for the Sunday of the Lord's Passion, 2009
Nard is an aromatic herb, a perennial
that can only be found in the Himalayan mountains in India.
When crushed, it yields a wonderfully scented oil.
The alabaster jar comes from Egypt.
It has been carefully carved from a chunk of calcium carbonate.
It is translucent so that the one who buys it,
knows that nobody has messed around with the oil,
such as diluting it with cheaper material.
You can see if there is any swill floating around.
Once you open it, it's opened –- no threaded caps.
A unnamed woman brings a great treasure to Jesus.
He is at table, dining with friends.
Before the shocked eyes of the disciples,
she empties the expensive perfumed oil over Jesus' head.
Not a few drops, but a lot...
The delicate fragrance fills the house.
Jesus is anointed as king, as Messiah.
The disciples cry out in dismay.
"Why this waste?
For this ointment could have been sold for 300 days wages,
and the money given to the poor."
The disciples understand charity.
They understand giving to the poor,
they have been doing all along during Jesus' ministry.
Yet they do not understand this woman's actions.
It seems so over the top.
To their dismay, probably, Jesus responds,
"Why do you trouble the woman?
She has done something beautiful for me."
He sees this woman's actions as service, as serving.
More, she has a prophetic awareness of his coming death.
Jesus says, "By pouring this ointment on my body
she has prepared me for burial."
What the disciples have denied all the way along,
that Jesus as Messiah will suffer and die,
she is once again making explicit.
In the Marcan account we have the betrayal by Judas;
the failure of Peter, James, and John to be with Jesus
in his most poignant hour of distress;
Peter who denies Jesus three times.
And then there is the pain and suffering of the trial,
first by Jewish leaders and then Pilate and his Roman thugs.
In the midst of all of this,
the account of this unknown woman anointing Jesus
with the outrageously expensive nard
stands as a witness to fidelity, to generosity, to tender care.
Her action testifies to the honest recognition of what is going to happen,
of what this path is really going to look like.
Just as Jesus' gift of self on the cross is unbounded,
so her gift is expansive and generous.
Jesus is as extravagant in his praise of her.
"Wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Today is a good day to remember the woman with a jar of nard.
There is some irony in this passage.
Though the woman is supposed to be remembered
wherever the Gospel is proclaimed,
most Christians are much more familiar with the action of Judas
than her prophetic devotion.
As we listen to the Gospel of Mark
we do well to give thanks for graced moments of discipleship,
for the blessing of fidelity and generosity,
when we were moved more by love than by fear.
This is what it looks like when we abandon ourselves to Christ.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
April 5, 2009
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