Monday of Holy Week

Reading I: Isaiah 42:1–7
Psalm: 27:1, 2, 3, 13–14
Gospel: John 12:1–11

Many of the Church fathers describe the Book of Isaiah as the “fifth” Gospel, so rich are its prophecies about the person of Christ. Today’s passage is no exception, as we read with hope of the mission of the Redeemer: “To open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Isa 42:7).
Fast forward to John’s Gospel and one finds a beautiful illustration of this mission in the small house at Bethany. Mary takes a jar of expensive perfume and begins to anoint the feet of Jesus. In the tradition, the theological masters are almost unanimous in identifying Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene as one and the same person. Hence, as Fr. Sean Davidson explains in his book St. Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love, it would seem that this beautiful episode of anointing shortly before Jesus’s death is actually a repetition of what Mary had done earlier in Jesus’s ministry (see Luke 7:36–50).
Having grown up in a devout Jewish home, Mary of Bethany at some point fell away from the faith of her ancestors and became embroiled in sin and vice. It was in this stage of her life that she earned the title “Magdalene,” and in Luke’s Gospel we read of the first occasion on which she came to anoint Jesus’s feet—an occasion wherein the oils she administered were mixed with many tears. Having lived a life of sin, Mary’s profound encounter with the person of Jesus suddenly brought about conversion in her heart.
Returning now to the episode in John’s Gospel, we see that same Mary two or three years later, now one of Jesus’s closest friends, repeating that same act of deferential love which marked the beginning of her journey with Him. Jesus says in response to Judas’s criticisms, “Let her keep this for the day of my burial,” a reference to how Mary Magdalene (that is, Mary of Bethany) would be the one to go to the tomb to anoint His body.
Understood in these ways, the figure of Mary Magdalene given to us in the Gospels shines out as a beautiful example of spiritual healing and ongoing, conversion. Let us pray for the grace to become more like her this Holy Week.

What lessons can we learn from St. Mary of Bethany this Holy Week?

Reference:

Journey Through Lent: Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings by Clement Harrold