Usually there are no special liturgies on this day, but in the narrative of Holy Week Jesus visits his friends at Bethany and Mary anoints him with precious oil, preparing him for his burial.
Homily by Supreme Chaplain Bishop William E. Lori
On Monday of Holy Week, Father McGivney would have proclaimed the very passage from St. John’s Gospel that we just heard, the story of Lazarus whom Christ raised from the dead, sitting at table with Jesus, together with Martha and Mary. McGivney would have read of how Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with precious ointment. It is true in those days Father McGivney would not have preached a weekday homily, but I would submit to you that his priestly life and priestly ministry gave eloquent testimony to the mysteries described in the Gospel passage just proclaimed. It is by focusing on Father McGivney’s eloquent testimony to the mysteries of our faith that you and I can be renewed in the vision and ideals he instilled in our beloved Order.
For a moment, let us focus on this Gospel. If we were tracing Jesus’ path to Calvary historically, we would know that today’s Gospel story is probably out of sequence with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The dinner that Jesus shared with his friends – with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary took place in Bethany from which he would depart for Jerusalem and thus to Calvary. Yet the Church has rightly read this Gospel on Monday of Holy Week for centuries because it sheds so much light on Jesus’ impending death and sets the scene of treachery in which the great events of redemption took place.
Only a short time before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. As he emerged from the tomb, Jesus commanded, ‘unbind him’, and with that the winding burial wrappings were removed from Lazarus. Many fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine, saw this action as symbolic of the power of Christ to unbind us from sin and the bonds of sin. Now Lazarus sits at table with Jesus, freed from sin and freed from death, a living predictor of the new life and freedom from sin that would be ours in the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist, the sacraments which Jesus would establish through His Paschal Mystery.
Let us now turn to the sister of Lazarus, Mary, and her extraordinary gesture of anointing the feet of Jesus and drying them with her hair. Recall it was Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His words. It was she who dwelt in His presence, who contemplated His wisdom, and thus perhaps glimpsed in advance the hour of Jesus’ death and burial. Thus, she anoints Jesus as a response to the love which he lavished upon her and upon her family. Mary anoints him on the eve of His great high priestly sacrifice, when the Word made flesh will give himself to the Father and to us, and thus vanquish sin and death forever.
May God bless and keep us always in His love!