Image: Shutterstock. Valencia, Spain. The painting of Resurrection of Lazarus in the Cathedral - Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady by Nicolas Falco.
When you see something that needs to be done, do you move heaven and earth to do it? Mary saw what was coming. In her heart she knew she had to pour out the most precious thing she had - costly perfume on the man who had given her back all that she had lost. Remember, Mary is the unpractical one in the equation that makes up the household of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Mary has had her brother restored to her by Jesus in the raising of Lazarus. She can only think of pouring out this costly offering in gratitude.
Back when Jesus raised Lazarus, it was Martha that scolded Jesus about being late, about how he could have saved her brother and even when Jesus started to act warned him that by now the body would stink. Martha calls for Mary to come and meet Jesus as well, and Mary, in her grief says the same thing as her sister. “If you had been here, by brother would not have died.”
What a contrast in these two stories. The grief and the love. The stench and the perfume. It amazes me to think of the way John has spun these images out - but Mary knows that she must offer what she has, everything she has to the man who has given her wisdom (in teaching her), given her family (in raising her brother), and given her eternity (in saying “I am the resurrection and the life.”)
The lesson we probably should take from this is that our gratitude and offering to God is not a matter of convenience, but rather than one of compulsion. We must be driven by God’s generosity to thank and offer back some of what is most precious to us to the one who has given us everything and withheld nothing. Here, Mary is the paragon of giving, the model for all Christians in how we recognize in Jesus all that we have been given and that our response is immediate and full-hearted love.
Lent is ending and we are moving into Holy Week soon. Now is the time to consider the ways in which Christ has transformed your life and the generosity with which God has turned toward you. What can you offer back? What is expected?
Jesus offers you everything and expects you to offer back, out of the fullness of your heart and in love what you can. That which is most precious to you, your own self. Consider this as we work our way through the coming Holy Week: Christ held nothing back for you and only asks that you do the same.
You need not fear the sacrifice, because our God has a way of receiving what we offer, blessing it and then turning it right back to us—for our benefit and for his Glory. So open your heart, pour it out as Mary poured out the pure nard and let the fragrance of gratitude fill your house. Then prepare for God to transform your life with what you have offered him.
Yours faithfully,
Bishop William G. Cliff
XIII Bishop of Ontario
Listen to Bishop Cliff's Lent 5 Reflection