We have seen Jesus preaching to the crowds about the kingdom of God. Those who really understood were the ones who got so caught up in love for Jesus that they forgot themselves and abased themselves before him.
“Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, ‘Why this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.’ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.‘” (Matthew 26:6 – 13).
A woman shows us the way. A woman understood Jesus and his message more than Jesus’ closest disciples. Who was this woman? Was she St Mary Magdalene? Tradition is uncertain on this point. It does not matter. To focus on this is to ignore the point of this Gospel pericope, which is to show us what true love for Jesus is like. Look at the woman in relation to those who followed Jesus. True love, as she showed, is for Jesus and has no concern for how that love appears to others. It is pure and selfless. His disciples loved him, but their love was not yet perfect; they were with him for individual gain. They were concerned about how things appeared to be. They wanted a special place of glory in the messianic kingdom. When it looked like their hopes and dreams were to be fulfilled with Jesus, they were by his side. When it looked like it was going to end in failure, they fled.
Judas was not the only one who misunderstood. Judas would betray Jesus. Peter would deny him. “The two scenes, each by itself, are close together. Peter’s denial is foretold after Judas has betrayed but before the kiss. The weakness of the Church appears built into the story of betrayal, and so a glaring light falls on it. If there had been no Judas, Peter would be the great betrayer. It is only because he stands in the framework of a still greater betrayal that we find a thousand excuses for him and for the faults of the Church continuing and occurring over and over again,” Adrienne von Speyr, The Passion From Within. Trans. Sister Lucia Wiedenhover (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998), 79.
Why do we follow Jesus? Do we understand the love shown to him by the woman, or would we too become indignant, thinking more about money than about him? Do we give our very selves to him, or do we look to him for individual gain?
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