A Meditation for Monday in Holy Week
By Erica Andersen
I remember that as a child I was amazed at the population of the world. In the 1980’s, there were more than 4 billion people. Today there are more than 8 billion people, and the majority of the world’s population owns a smartphone. With so many people on the planet, and all of our advanced communications technology, we should be more connected than ever to each other. Instead, people are lonelier than ever.
Articles abound that call attention to the problem of loneliness and its consequences on mental and physical health, including cardiovascular disease. People can lose years of their lives due to loneliness. Loneliness is a public health crisis.
In our connected, global world it is common for people to move, heading off to college or graduate school or moving far away from family or friends in search of a dream job. My husband and I have lived in six states in the 24 years we have been married. Each time we move, I experience a period of wondering who my new friends will be and how long it will be before I find them. There have been times when I have been ready to give up and accept that the rest of my life would be lonely and friendless.
It is fairly easy to find ways to be around people. This is an important first step of seeking friends. Choosing to be around people and interacting with people are healthy habits that we can control. Other essential friendship-making skills that can be developed include making small talk, smiling and using open body language, calling people by their name, and being generally positive. I have found Instagram to have an abundance of helpful short videos on these topics.
Developing these habits can lead to pleasant interactions that may turn into friendships. However, the magic that happens when we connect with people who truly understand us, who listen, who are willing to share in our joy and pain, is beyond our control. It can take months or years after moving to a new place before we make those kinds of connections. As we wait, sometimes we can feel the loneliest when we are in a group of people who already know each other. To be with others and to feel invisible or misunderstood can feel even lonelier than being alone.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus was constantly misunderstood. Even his closest disciples could not grasp much of what he tried to tell them during his lifetime, especially when he spoke of his death. However, he had one friend, one disciple, who did understand.
In today’s Gospel lesson, we read John’s version of Jesus’ anointing. Mary of Bethany, sister to Martha and Lazarus, anoints Jesus’ feet with fragrant perfume and wipes them with her hair. The house is filled with the aroma. This is an act of humility, adoration, and love, and Jesus says that she did it in preparation for his burial (Jn 12:7).
Mark and Matthew make clear in their accounts that this episode in Jesus’ life is essential to the Gospel, and they quote Jesus as saying, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Mk 14:9; Mt 26:13). Perhaps this is why it is the traditional reading for Monday of Holy Week.
Given the strong emphasis that the Gospels place on the significance of this story, and its presence in all four of the Gospels, I am not sure that we give it the attention it deserves. I think this is because the meaning is multilayered and mysterious.
What amazes me the most about this story is that out of all Jesus’ followers, only Mary seems to have comprehended, at least partially, what all of his other disciples have struggled to absorb. She alone shares in the painful anticipation of his death. She alone accepts that Jesus is going to die, and she honors him with this act of love, humility, and beauty.
As I am writing this, Lent has not yet started, and I think I will make remembering Mary of Bethany my theme for Lent this year. As we carefully clean and polish every inch of our chapel and all of the beautiful items of our sacristy, I will think of her. Each time the chapel is filled with incense, I will think not only of prayers ascending to heaven, but of the fragrance of the perfume that she poured over the feet of her Lord. As I take my shift in the Red Chapel on the night of Good Friday, I will gaze at the loveliness of the flowers and the candles, and recall how Mary poured beauty onto Jesus before he poured out himself for us on the cross.
The church fathers interpreted Jesus’ anointing by Mary as instructive to all Christians, teaching us that we should continue to anoint Jesus’ body by caring for the needs of others (Elowsky, 40-48). In this era of extreme loneliness, anointing others often means to listen, to seek to understand, to accept, and to offer our presence and our love.
Bibliography:
Elowsky, Joel C., editor. John 11-21. Ancient Christian Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007.
Erica Andersen is a senior residential student at Nashotah House and is an aspirant to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. She serves as seminarian at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. She previously studied English literature, classics, and Montessori education. For many years she was a homeschooling parent and community volunteer. Her hobbies include language learning, reading, hiking, gardening, and crochet. She is passionate about teaching God’s word to people of all ages. Erica and her husband Tim have three children. The readings for the preceding devotional may be located here from Forward Movement.
