HOMILY XXIV. ON MONDAY AFTER PALM SUNDAY.
JOHN XII. At that time, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus had raised, etc.
It is the custom of the wise not only to learn the virtue of prudence from those things which they have rightly and prudently understood but also to learn it from those things they have known to be done or said otherwise, so that they may imitate these by following and avoid those by shunning. Which indeed, beloved brothers, reason compels us to do in today’s reading of the holy Gospel, not only to learn by example the devotion of those who love Christ but also to consider the faithlessness of the persecutors and avoid it more quickly by considering it. For it is necessary for us to follow the prudence of those women whom we have known to have adhered to the Lord with such faith and love; let us flee the foolishness of the chief priests and Pharisees, who sought to circumvent and kill the wisdom of God with treachery; let us beware of the madness of those who went up to Jerusalem to be sanctified for the Passover, but, forgetful of sanctification, were plotting the death of the Savior in the very house of prayer. The Passover was approaching, at which it was necessary for everyone who had been sanctified and purified to come to the eating of the lamb: and those who had gone up to the temple to be sanctified came down more defiled by the conspiracy to shed blood. Let us carefully attend, for the time of our Passover is approaching. When it comes, let us, being sanctified, approach the Lord’s altar, not to eat the flesh of the lamb, but to partake of the holy mysteries of our Redeemer. Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let no one turn the house of prayer into a den of thieves, let no one lay snares of death for the members of Christ, let no one who still remains in death presume to approach to receive the mysteries of life: for he who does not love remains in death. Let us love Christ in himself, and let us love him in his members, let us seek the Lord, and our soul shall live, but let us seek him, not as the wicked do to kill, but as the faithful do to enjoy forever. For it is said, they sought Jesus and spoke among themselves standing in the temple. What do you think, that he will not come to the feast day? For the Jews sought Jesus, but wrongly: they sought him to kill him coming to the feast day. But let us seek him standing in the temple of God, and persisting unanimously in prayer, and let us speak among ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, asking in grace for him to come to our feast day, and deign to illuminate us with his presence, and sanctify us with his own gifts.
But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, they should inform them, so that they might arrest him. Let us also, brothers, give each other orders, that if any one of us knows in whose heart more abundant are the bowels of mercy, greater humility, kindness, modesty, power, and a more abundant supply of other virtues — the evident signs of Christ present — let him immediately inform where such a person is, so that by faithfully imitating we may hold to the footsteps of Christ found in him. But knowing that the Jews had conspired to kill him, the Lord did not flee the hands of the plotters, but certain of the glory of the resurrection, he first came to Bethany, a town near Jerusalem, where he had raised Lazarus from the dead, and then to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die: that he himself might die there. But he came to Bethany so that the memory of the resurrection of Lazarus might be more closely impressed upon everyone's memory, and so that the impious rulers, who did not fear to kill him who could raise from the dead, would be more and more confounded and proven inexcusable, since, neither provoked by the benefits of the resurrection nor terrified by the divine power of the one raising, they did not draw back their minds from unjust murder. And lest the plotters of slanders say that Lazarus had been fantastically raised, a dinner was made there for the Lord, and he himself was one of those reclining at the table with him, so that while they saw or heard him living, speaking, feasting, and conversing familiarly with his own, they might either recognize the power of the one raising and receive grace, or, refusing to assent to the truth with an obdurate heart, incur punishment. Mystically, however, this dinner of the Lord, where Martha served and Lazarus reclined with others, is the faith of the Church which operates through love: whence elsewhere the Lord says to the disciples of the people who would believe in him: I have food to eat which you do not know about (John IV). And explaining this, he added: My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work. In this dinner Martha serves when each faithful soul offers the labor of their devotion to the Lord; Lazarus, however, becomes one of those reclining with the Lord, when even those who have been raised to righteousness after the death of sins, along with those who have remained in their righteousness, exult in the presence of the truth, penitents together with the innocent are nourished by the gifts of heavenly grace. And this dinner is well celebrated in Bethany, which is a city on the side of the Mount of Olives, and means house of obedience. The house of obedience indeed is the Church, which faithfully obeys the commands of the Lord: and it is the city, which situated on the mount of mercy, can never be hidden, and also constructed from the side of the Redeemer, that is, imbued with the water of washing and the blood of sanctification, which flowed from the side of the one dying for it: where also the other sister of Lazarus, Mary, as a sign of great love, as the following passages of the evangelical reading show, took a pound of costly pure nard ointment, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.
By this action, she not only gives an indication of her own devotion but also marks the piety and service of other faithful souls to God. But it should be noted first that, as we have learned from the narrations of Matthew and Mark, Mary anointed not only the feet of the Lord but also His head with nard. Nor should it be doubted that she is the same woman who, as the Evangelist Luke reports (Luke 7), came to the Lord with an alabaster flask of ointment, once a sinner, and standing behind Him at His feet, began to wet His feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing His feet, and anointing them with the ointment. Thus, she is the same woman, but there she only anointed the feet of the Lord, bowing in repentance and amidst sorrowful tears, whereas here she does not hesitate to anoint His feet and even to raise herself to anoint His head amidst the joys of righteous action. Therefore, there it signifies the beginnings of repentance, here it designates the justice of perfected souls, from which it is rightly said the amount of ointment is not mentioned then, but now it is said to be a pound. For what is expressed by a pound of ointment if not the perfection of justice? Then, the type of ointment was kept silent; now it is indicated as being of pure nard, that is, faithful and not adulterated with foreign substances but precious, so that the chastity of perfect faith and action may be intimated. Through the head of the Lord which Mary anointed, the sublimity of His divinity is expressed; through the feet, the humility of His incarnation. We anoint His feet when we rightly proclaim with due praise the mystery of the received incarnation; we anoint His head when we reverently venerate the excellence of His divinity with a worthy expression of word. For what is signified by ointment if not the good fragrance of opinion? As Paul attests, who says: "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus and manifests the aroma of His knowledge through us in every place" (2 Corinthians 2). The head of the Lord, who is the mediator between God and humans and who is the head of the Church, may also be rightly signified; the feet can be understood, without inconsistency, as any of His least members, about whom He will say at the end: "As long as you did it to one of these least brothers of mine, you did it to me" (Matthew 25). We anoint the head of the Lord when we embrace the glory of His divinity and humanity with the sweetness of worthy faith, hope, and charity, when we expand the praise of His name by living well. We anoint the feet of the Lord when we console His poor with the word of consolation so that they may not despair in tribulations. We wipe the same with our hair when we share what is surplus to us with the needy: and it happens to us as follows.
And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Because in our measure the world is filled with the reputation of devotion, in which we are proven to worship and affectionately love God and our neighbor with a simple and pure heart: and so it happens what the bride in the Song of Love boasts, while the king was at his table, my nard gave its fragrance. Where it is clearly shown what Mary did once, typically however what the whole Church, what every perfect soul always does.
Therefore one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was to betray him, said: Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? Woe to the wicked traitor, woe to the accomplices of his wickedness, even now persecuting the members of Christ, who do not cease to envy their neighbors for the reputation of virtue which they do not deserve to have! And indeed we might think that Judas spoke out of concern for the poor, but a truthful witness unmasked his mind, saying:
He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, he carried what was put in it. Therefore Judas did not perish only when he betrayed the Lord for money, but already lost he was following the Lord, having the Lord’s money bag, not only carrying what was put in it for ministry, but also accustomed to stealing from it. For seeing the Lord that Judas’s heart was polluted with the foul stain of greed, foreseeing it would be further stained with the fouler stain of betrayal, entrusted to his care whatever was in the bags, and allowed him to do what he wished with it, that either the honor given or the memory of the money held might recall his mind from selling him. But because a greedy person is always in want, and never remembers benefits, the wicked person advanced from stealing the money that he carried to betraying the Lord who entrusted him.
Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. To Judas, who was questioning innocently, the Lord explained simply and meekly where Mary's service belonged: because he was to die and be anointed with spices for burial. Therefore, it was granted to Mary, who although she greatly desired it, could not arrive to anoint his dead body, to offer the service to him while he was still alive, which she could not do after his death, as she was prevented by his quick resurrection. Hence Mark rightly testifies that the Lord said about her: She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial (Mark 14). Which is openly to say: Because she could not touch my body when it was already deceased, she did what she could now, she anticipated giving the office of burial to me while still alive.
For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. And here, with great moderation and patience, the Lord did not accuse Judas of avarice, nor of speaking about money for the sake of the poor, but reasonably showed that those who ministered to him from their resources when he was living among men should not be blamed, since he would remain corporally in the Church for such a short time, but the poor, to whom alms could be given, would always be there.
A great crowd of Jews knew therefore that he was there, and they came not only for Jesus, but so that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Curiosity brought them to Jesus, not love. But we, brethren most beloved, if we know where Jesus is, where he dwells, where Bethany is, that is, the house of the obedient soul in which he resides, let us come there through contemplation, not only for the man whom he has raised from the death of the soul and granted to live spiritually, but so that by imitating the good life of the man we may through this merit to reach the vision of Jesus: because we have certainly known where Jesus is. For he has risen after death and ascended into heaven, there he has a perpetual dwelling. This is the true Bethany, the heavenly city, which no one can enter except the obedient. Let us strive therefore to come there with the inward affections of the heart, let us yearn there for the same founder of that house, let us all ask, each of us ask, that we may dwell in his house all the days of our life, not so that we might see Lazarus whom he has raised from the dead there, but so that we, raised from the dead with Lazarus and the other saints, may see the will of the Lord, and be protected in his holy temple.
Moreover, the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also; because many went away on account of him from the Jews, and believed in Jesus. O wretched craftiness of the blind, to wish to kill the one who was raised, as if he who could raise the dead could not raise the slain! And indeed he proved that he could do both, who raised both Lazarus who was dead and himself who was slain. But we, brethren, leaving behind the malice of the faithless, let us follow the devotion of the faithful, let us depart from the company of the impious, let us not sit in the council of vanity, and let us not enter with those who do wicked deeds; let us believe in him who not only saves the body but also the soul from death, and let us hold to what we believe by our works, so that believing we may have eternal life in his name, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.