Monday of Holy Week: reflection
Theme: INVITATION TO LOOK BEYOND THE COMMONNESS OF CHURCH’S TRIDUUM ACTIVITIES
Reading: Jn12:1–11
Dear friends in Christ, the response of Jesus to Judas’ objection of Mary’s action in today’s gospel sets the tone for the Holy Week and invites us to look beyond what might appear as ‘ordinary or common activities’ of the Church during this Paschal Triduum in order to discover their spiritual significances and benefit from them as well.
Jesus went to the house of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. As He was speaking with the people who had come to benefit from His wisdom, Mary took out a pound of expensive pure nard ointment and began anointing Jesus’ feet with it, wiping them with her hair. The scent of that pricey ointment permeated the entire house. Judas thought Mary was squandering valuable resources and that the ointment should have been monetized. But Jesus looked beyond Mary’s outward gestures; he rather saw her preparing him for burial and wished that others would do the same.
The Holy Week, is a week packed with intense activities aimed at reenacting the paschal mysteries of Christ; activities that take us through the stages of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. These will include the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday in which the feet of some people will be washed and the spending of at least one hour with Jesus after the Mass in adoration, Stations of the Cross, celebration of Christ’s passion and veneration of the Cross on Good Friday and the activities of Easter Virgil on the night of Holy Saturday.
As external, ordinary or common as Triduum’s activities might appear, they are very rich in spiritual significances and are spiritually enriching too. When these activities are actively and faithfully followed, they lead Christians to experience Christ’s passion, suffer, endure and ‘die’ with Him in order to rise and reign with Him in glory (2 Tim 2:11–12). These are activities that dispose Christians to fully benefit from the glory of Christ’s resurrection.
However, those who, like Judas, lack the spiritual insight to recognize the spiritual aspect and benefits of the activities of the Easter Triduum will see Christians who are participating in them as wasting their precious time and would rather suggest that such time be monetized by spending it on businesses. Jesus is inviting these people today to look beyond the commonness of the activities of the Church during the Paschal Triduum and discover the blessings that flow from them.
May your new week be filled with blessings. Amen