For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people."

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

- Matthew 26:1-16

In yesterday's reading, Jesus summed up in very plain and striking speech, His teachings on mercy, and how we are to live in this time in which we await His Second Coming. He has told us three parables regarding His return and how we are to live in this time: about how to be faithful and wise servants while the Master is away, the foolish and wise virgins, and the parable of the talents. In yesterday's reading, Jesus spoke about the Judgment. He did so to teach us once more His teachings on the practice of mercy. In Judgment He will come in His glory, with all the holy angels, and separate the sheep and the goats, on His right and left. Jesus taught that He will say to the sheep: "'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I as sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" Then He will turn to the others, stating how they failed to do for Him any of the things listed above. Jesus taught: "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." Here Jesus foretells His death; He knows the time of it, He knows how it will happen. My study bible points out that He goes willingly. "Others," it says, "ignorant of their fate, die against their will. Or, if they know they are in danger, they seek to avoid it. Jesus foretells His Passion and approaches it with the joy of knowing its fruit: the Resurrection and our salvation." In yesterday's reading, Jesus spoke of the mercy we are to show those who are in need, and His return as all-powerful King. We contrast that to the Man who is going to His death to be crucified as a criminal and treated absolutely unjustly, even outside the normal process of the law among His own. In itself, this part of the story reminds us that He came to us as One in need, an outcast, among the poor and humble. We must never forget that. It is an indispensable part of the story, something so integral to our faith and the workings of salvation that it becomes central to our understanding of God and God's will for us.

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." Again, there is in itself the significance of this story as juxtaposed so soon after Jesus teaches about our need to practice mercy. Is His teaching of the practice of mercy all about money, the bottom line, what is most efficient? Or is it, instead, a teaching of the heart, of love? Money does not solve all problems, nor is it always the most loving gesture that fills a true need! Here the criticism is against this woman and her gesture of love for Christ. In this case, one could say, to my way of thinking, that a focus on the money alone is a focus only on good works for show, and a lack of understanding of mercy and grace at work in her and her action. Simon the leper would be another example of the excluded or ostracized being included in Christ's brotherhood, another example of what it may mean to be among the poor and humble. He must have been healed by Jesus earlier, says my study bible, for lepers were forbidden to live in towns.

But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." Here it is, the statement that the poor we have with us always. (See yesterday's reading for a reference to it in Jesus' teachings on the practice of mercy and our preparation for His Second Coming.) This great gesture of love, for His burial, becomes a deeper affirmation of what it is to know God, to be in dialogue and relationship with God. My study bible says, "Should we give to charity or to the Church building fund? What specifically is to be done with our personal funds and the Church's money is not resolved here; but Christ establishes that a believer's gift of his very best to honor and glorify the Person of Christ is just as worthy as giving to the poor." In this anointing we once again see an image of the Spirit and of grace at work: we remember the Greek word for oil as practically identical in sound to the word for mercy, and the connotations and connections therein. She is acting in the Spirit, it is again a gesture of prayer in this context. It is also one of great beauty and love, an apposite gift. Beyond that, it is an acceptance of His death that He has foretold, a willingness to serve the mysterious will that He teaches us to follow always.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. In Judas, perhaps we see the results of too strong a focus on works alone in the sense of appearance before human beings, and a lack of understanding of the grace in the loving gesture of this woman. A focus on money is consistent with the historical understanding of the Church, that this is an act of greed on Judas' part. But elsewhere, we are told that it was Judas who criticized this woman. (She is most likely Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, Jesus' close friends, as reported in John's gospel). So, Judas is also responding to a public rebuke from Christ, another sign of emphasis on appearance before men, a lack of understanding of love and relationship to Christ, and even Christ's love for him as Teacher.

This story of Mary and the ointment may be a hard one for many people to accept, but in the gesture I find tremendous beauty and love, and a deeper teaching than the way in which we usually think about charity and sharing. I think that acts of love trump everything. They don't always make sense in a worldly way of thinking. They may not be efficient in a purely cost-base sense. But love can be as easily expressed through a simple gift as a very costly one, and from such an example we take our cue here. We know, also, that Christ will make the greatest sacrifice for all of us through love, and that her sacrifice of a costly ointment is out of love for Him. The acts of the heart, of a loving heart, are those which are prompted through prayer. That is, those that are prompted through union and relationship to a loving God who urges us to love in the language and understanding of the heart -- the mystical place where the Spirit may be at work in us and in our lives, prompting us to our works. In this gesture is an affirmation of love, and in Christ's rebuke is once again the sense that with our worldly perspective alone we can't really fully understand what this is all about. We can't always know what is best apart from the loving reality we may find in dialogue and acceptance of God and the grace of the Spirit. How else could we possibly understand the Crucifixion, except as an act of love that would do so much more good than its evident harm in the worldly sense? There is also the love in the rebuke of Christ, telling Judas the truth, and teaching him about love. One extraordinary gesture, one rebuke, and the commitment to His crucifixion and death -- all these things we have in today's reading. But all of them become acts of great grace, astounding and powerful, as we reach toward the Passion and Crucifixion in Matthew's gospel. If there is anything we could take from today's reading, it is perhaps simply a prayer for discernment, for the understanding of the mysterious law of love that comes from relationship to a loving God, and for the eyes to truly see what love wants and what love does. The bottom line won't tell us that. We need a different understanding to truly know what is best, and what serves the most.