Keeping Up Appearances

Apr 3: Monday of Holy Week

Apr 03, 2023

We are all called upon to perform corporal acts of mercy. One of the most common (and let’s be honest, helpful) ways of doing this is giving alms to the poor.

But there’s no more pure act of mercy than burying the dead. They cannot, ever, pay you back. Yet, it’s something every human civilization does.1 It’s a universally human act of kindness that shows, deep down, we all know death isn’t the end.

Reading 1

Is 42:1-7

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, Not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, Until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it: I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

Just like yesterday’s first reading, this is another one of Isaiah’s suffering servant poems. A servant so gentle he wouldn’t break the reed that the soldiers beat him with.

The last line is probably a foreshadowing of Jesus’ decent into Hell. Jesus came for the salvation of everyone, not just the people of Judea in the first century, or even his followers in the last two thousand years. He saved even those who had died before he was born, who had been prisoners that live in the darkness.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 27:1, 2, 3, 13-14

R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

“When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh”?

I’ve never been in that situation, and I hope you haven’t either. But whatever situation you are in, it’s helpful to think of Psalm 27. “Wait for the LORD with courage.”

Verse Before the Gospel

Hail to you, our King;
you alone are compassionate with our faults.

Remember that Jesus is compassionate because He can fully identify with us, having lived a full, human life. He even died. I bet you haven’t died, yet.

Gospel

Jn 12:1-11

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?"

He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

Remember that it’s vitally important to Christianity that Jesus died for our sins. He didn’t sleep or pretend; His soul left His body. Jesus knew he was coming back, but Martha and the others didn’t.

So, all the burial and funerary customs had to be kept. His corpse needed to be anointed, and laid in a tomb, or others wouldn’t believe He was truly dead.