PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD MARCH 24, 2024
...Jesus makes a bold statement about the woman who anoints him with oil just days before he is killed: “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her”. She alone does something loving and merciful for him in the days before his death. Some scoff at her action, regarding it as a waste of precious oil. They say that it was worth nearly a year’s wages, a huge sum that could have been given to the poor. Perhaps they have a point. Perhaps her actions were extravagant. But Jesus teaches us that such extravagance for those you love is not a waste at all. After all, if one were to look at the life of the Messiah, ending his life not as the healer of every ill, the benefactor of every beggar, and the victor over every opponent, but on the cross, condemned as a criminal, one would see his life as a waste. What could God have had in mind to send him into the world only to die a condemned man, with the world objectively not any better than it had been? With eyes of faith, we know that his life was not a waste, for he healed our every spirit, paid for our every sin, and won the victory over death. As this woman who lowered herself to enter a leper’s home and wasted her entire jar of priceless oil, Jesus emptied himself to enter sinful humanity’s home and spent his entire life to give us the priceless gift of eternal life. Jesus gives us this woman as an example. In what ways can I show my love for others in a way that might seem extravagant to observers, but meaningful to them and for me?