Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aquinas - Mark
CHAP . 14
14:1–2
1. After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.
2. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.
PSEUDO-JEROME . Let us now sprinkle our book, and our thresholds with blood, and put the scarlet thread around the house of our prayers, and bind scarlet on our hand, as was done to Zarah, (Gen. 38:30) that we may be able to say that the red heifer is slain in the valley. (Num. 19:2, Deut. 21:4) For the Evangelist, being about to speak of the slaying of Christ, premises, After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread.
BEDE . (in Marc. iv. 43) Pascha which in Hebrew is phase, is not called from Passion, as many think, but from passing over, because the destroyer, seeing the blood on the doors of the Israelites, passed by them, and did not smite them; or the Lord Himself, bringing aid unto His people, walked above them.
PSEUDO-JEROME . Or else phase is interpreted a passing over, but Pascha means sacrifice. In the sacrifice of the lamb, and the passing of the people through the sea, or through Egypt, the Passion of Christ is prefigured, and the redemption of the people from hell, when He visits us after two days, that is, when the moon is most full, and the age of Christ is perfect, that when no part at all of it is dark, we may eat the flesh of the Lamb without spot, who taketh away the sins of the world, in one house, that is, in the Catholic Church, shod with charity, and armed with virtue.
BEDE . (ubi sup.) The difference according to the Old Testament between the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread was, that the day alone on which the lamb was slain in the evening, that is, the fourteenth moon of the first month, was called Passover. But on the fifteenth moon, when they came out of Egypt, the feast of unleavened bread came on, which solemn time was appointed for seven days, that is, up to the twenty-first day of the same month in the evening. But the Evangelists indifferently use the day of unleavened bread for the Passover, and the Passover for the days of unleavened bread. Wherefore Mark also here says, After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread, because the day of the Passover was also ordered to be celebrated on the days of unleavened bread, and we also, as it were, keeping a continual passover, ought always to be passing out of this world.
PSEUDO-JEROME . But iniquity came forth in Babylon from the princes, who ought to have purified the temple and the vessels, and themselves according to the law, in order to eat the lamb. Wherefore there follows: And the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. Now when the head is slain, the whole body is rendered powerless, wherefore these wretched men slay the Head. But they avoid the feast day, which indeed befits them, for what feasting can there be for them, who have lost life and mercy? Wherefore it goes on: But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.
BEDE . (ubi sup.) Not indeed, as the words seem to imply, that they feared the uproar, but they were afraid lest He should be taken out of their hands by the aid of the people.
THEOPHYLACT . Nevertheless, Christ Himself had determined for Himself the day of His Passion; for He wished to be crucified on the Passover, because He was the true Passover.
14:3–9
3. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
4. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5. For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
7. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
8. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
9. Verily I say unto, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
BEDE . (ubi sup.) The Lord when about to suffer for the whole world, and to redeem all nations with His blood, dwells in Bethany, that is, in the house of obedience; wherefore it is said, And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman.
PSEUDO-JEROME . For the fawn amongst the stags ever comes back to his couch, that is, the Son, obedient to the Father even unto death, seeks for obedience from us.
BEDE . (ubi sup.) He says of Simon the leper, not because he remained still a leper at that time, but because having once been such, he was healed by our Saviour; his former name is left, that the virtue of the Healer may be made manifest.
THEOPHYLACT . But although the four Evangelists record the anointing by a woman, there were two women and not one; one described by John, the sister of Lazarus; it was she who six days before the Passover anointed the feet of Jesus; another described by the other three Evangelists. Nay, if you examine, you will find three; for one is described by John, another by Luke, a third by the other two. For that one described by Luke is said to be a sinner and to have come to Jesus during the time of His preaching; but this other described by Matthew and Mark is said to have come at the time of the Passion, nor did she confess that she had been a sinner.
AUGUSTINE . (de Con. Evan. ii. 79) I however think that nothing else can be meant, but that the sinner who then came to the feet of Jesus was no other than the same Mary who did this twice; once, as Luke relates it, when coming for the first time with humility and tears she merited the remission of her sins. For John also relates this, when he began to speak of the raising of Lazarus before He came to Bethany, saying, It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. (John 11:2) But what she again did at Bethany is another act, unrecorded by Luke, but mentioned in the same way by the other three Evangelists. In that therefore Matthew and Mark say that the head of the Lord was anointed by the woman, whilst John says the feet, we must understand that both the head and the feet were anointed by the woman. Unless because Mark has said that she broke the box in order to anoint His head, any one is so fond of cavilling as to deny that, because the box was broken, any could remain to anoint the feet of the Lord. But a man of a more pious spirit will contend that it was not broken so as to pour out the whole, or else that the feet were anointed before it was broken, so that there remained in the unbroken box enough to anoint the head.