Monday of Holy Week
My daughter is a hospice nurse. She has a very close friend who is dying of cancer. She is only 30 years old and has been battling ovarian cancer for the last four years. Of course there have been the hospitalizations, chemotherapy, doctor appointments, scans, and so forth. Those closest to this young woman have struggled with denial, exhaustion, fear, and all the rest. It has been a journey of hopes and disappointments. Whenever I talk with my daughter she always tells me the details of what is happening. More importantly, she tells me how her friend is doing and what she has been able to do to just ‘be with’ her friend and ‘tend to’ her. Today’s Gospel serves as a reminder to me that although we may suspect—or even know for sure—what pain or sorrow lie ahead for those close to us, it is now, in this very moment that God offers us the opportunity and the grace to ‘be with’ and to ‘tend to’.
I took a look back over last week’s Gospel readings and was struck by that fact that in nearly every single passage Jesus is threatened in some manner. His opponents are plotting to kill him, making plans to arrest him, or trying to stone him; Jesus has done a lot of hiding out and escaping of late. In today’s reading, the Anointing at Bethany, the threat to Jesus’ life still remains, but there is an abundance of the grace of tenderness at work. Martha is preparing a dinner, Lazarus is reclining at table with Jesus, and Mary is anointing Jesus’ feet with fragrant oil. There is a crowd of people who have come to see Jesus. While the passage highlights Mary’s anointing of Jesus, this scene also reveals each and every character being present in exactly the manner they are supposed to be for Jesus—Martha serving Jesus, Lazarus being with Jesus, and Mary tending to Jesus. Even the crowd of people are doing their part. The only person on the wrong side of grace is Judas. And while the behavior of Judas does serve as a reminder of the brokenness and evil in the world and the imminent threat to Jesus, that is neither the focus nor the calling of the present moment. And Jesus refuses to allow the incident with Judas to interfere.
As we enter more deeply into this Holy Week, there is such an abundance of opportunity to ‘be with’ and ‘tend to’ Jesus as well as the others in our lives. We may not be able to change the inevitable course of things but that is not our job anyway! Each moment offers a unique opportunity and the grace necessary to embrace that opportunity to be for another person exactly what God’s love invites. May you and yours be blessed and be blessings to one another during this sacred time of Holy Week.
O Holy Immortal One,
Please send your Spirit to me this day.
Teach me to ‘be with’ and tend to’ others.
May I be fully present during this Holy Week
to Jesus as well as those closest to me.
With the intercession of Mary,
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
--Gail Lyman