by Return to Me: Lenten Reflections by Holy Cross 2019
Before his final week in Jerusalem, Jesus travels to Bethany (a name which means “The House of Affliction” or “House of the Poor”) to visit his friends Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus. During their meal, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with costly perfumed oil which Judas considers a wasteful act; he asks why she didn’t sell the oil and give the money to the poor.
Just as Judas misunderstands the intention of Mary, I, like many of us, am sometimes misunderstood, and this reading highlights difficulties in understanding one another. At the same time, we are asked by the reading to consider the response of Jesus that
“You always have the poor with you.”
If indeed the face of the Lord is especially visible in the faces of the poor, brokenhearted, needy, disconsolate, down trodden and abandoned, how should we behave with the poor? Mary acts from love and devotion. Judas would rather take her gift of oil and sell it to give to the poor. His attitude reflects a supposed concern for the poor that would use “the poor” for self-promotion by giving to them rather sharing with them since in many places in scripture the poor man is defined as “your brother.”