First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-7
He will not cry out, nor make his voice heard in the street.
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
Upon whom I have put my Spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
Until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spreads out the earth with its crops,
Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to those who walk on it:
I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 2, 3, 13-14
R./ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The Lord is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R./ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.
R./ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
R./ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.
R./ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Gospel Reading: John 12:1-11
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came,
not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away
and believing in Jesus because of him.
A jar of perfume worth 300 and a Master worth 30!
It is the first day of the Holy Week. We prepare ourselves to celebrate the mysteries of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We call them mysteries because, with human intelligence and wisdom, we will never be able to comprehend or explain them. As we begin our journey through the Holy Week today, let us join this family of Lazarus and his two sisters – Martha and Mary, a family that Jesus loved. This family – re-united miraculously after Jesus brought Lazarus back to life – knows that no welcome is too lavish for their most honoured guest.
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus seem to understand that Jesus has fixed his eye on Jerusalem and is on the go. They didn’t ask questions. They simply had their home open to him. They loved him – true love, true friendship.
Perhaps they sensed that it was their last chance… a final opportunity to show their undying loyalty to their Lord before his impending passion and death. It was more than a visit of a dear friend … it was the farewell gathering! It appears that the family of Lazarus, Mary in particular, was fully aware of the intensity of the occasion. When emotions run high, one has nothing much to talk…
They could feel something painful was going to happen to their Lord. Lazarus shares the table with Jesus while Martha serves them. Then happens the profoundly intimate act of Mary – the anointing. This woman had seen, heard, and secretly acted upon Jesus’ open prediction of his coming suffering and death. How does she express the emotions she feels? With gestures that display her affection and feminine sensitivity: the perfume, the kisses, loosened hair, the tears. These are gestures that could rattle and scandalise those around. She loved him much.
On the other hand, the disciple who was handpicked by Jesus and had accompanied him during his preaching and healing ministry could only read the calculations of income and expenses! Three hundred silver coins were what he calculated for this jar of perfume. In a few days from now we would find him fixing an amount for his Master, it was a mere 30 silver coins! His Master whom he followed for three years, was 10 times less worth than a jar of perfume!
Does it ring familiar? Do we come across people in our Church communities who are vociferous for their concern for the poor and find faults with everything that happens in the Church? We too, make wrong calculations in our lives – when we consider our social status, power, and positions more valuable than friends and family. When we give to the Lord, it is either everything or nothing.
bibleclaretIntroduction
Holy Week is for us the time when we meditate on the saving death of our Lord. The days of his suffering are approaching. The first reading gives us the first of the famous songs about the Servant of Yahweh. The liturgy of the Holy Week characterizes Jesus as the Servant of Yahweh. This first song speaks, perhaps directly, about the attitude and role of God’s people, but we find these exemplified fully in Jesus, the perfect servant of God and of people. He is shown here to us as God’s servant who came to serve the poor and the suffering by bringing them justice and freedom, and light in darkness to all; he will be the covenant for us, the people, by uniting us with God and one another. All of these, he did for us by his saving death.
Opening Prayer
Lord, our God,
you have called your people
to be the servant of one another
in the cause of justice and mercy.
You showed us in Jesus, your Son,
what it means to serve
and how much this may cost us.
Fill us with the Spirit of Jesus,
that we too, may not break those who are weak
nor repel those groping in the dark.
Let him teach us to serve and to love
with compassion for the helpless
and respect for the least and the poorest,
together with Jesus Christ, our Lord.
General Intercessions
Indifference and routine are perhaps more deadening and corrosive to the Christian life than calamities and acute sufferings, for we are often not aware of them. Let us pray to our Father in heaven that we may struggle to regain our freedom, which Christ redeemed for us with his life, and let us say: Lord, set your people free.
– For the Church, that like the Lord, Jesus Christ, it may shun positions of power to share the life and miseries of the faithful and to lift them up to the joys and life of the risen Lord, we pray:
– For those who are resigned to a life of boredom and routine, that they may answer Christ’s challenge to grow to his full maturity, we pray:
– For those who have handed over their inner freedom to publicity, social pressure and conformism, that they may dare again to be themselves and to take their lives into their own hands, we pray:
– For those who fight injustice and oppression, that they may not be moved by hatred, but that they may be driven by a genuine love and concern for their neighbor, we pray:
– For those who are afraid of death, that they may rely on Christ, who overcame death by the cross and turned it into a gift of life, we pray:
Lord, our God, the loyal death of your Son made it possible for us to become free people and to discover joy in its fullness. Through his death and resurrection, may the pains and storms of life become instruments of the freedom, joy, and happiness promised to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God,
with your Son in our midst,
we your people ask of you today:
To bring us sinners
the justice of your forgiving love
and help us to establish
true justice on earth,
that we the people of your lasting love,
may never be a scandal to our neighbor
but servants and signs of hope and joy.
Let this be our offering to you
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
by the body and blood of your Son,
you call us to serve the cause of right.
Breathe into us, your people,
the Spirit of justice of your Son.
Let him take us by the hand
and make us with him
the source of unity and light
to the poor and the blind of our day,
to the seekers of love and truth.
Be with us, your people,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
We know that these days of the Holy Week, the Lord Jesus will lead us from death to life if we learn from him to love and serve one another, and to live for one another, even at the cost of sacrificing ourselves. May God give you this courage and bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
