THE  HOUSE  WAS  FILLED 

WITH  THE  FRAGRANCE  OF  OIL 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in Holy Week is, “The House Was Filled With The Fragrance of Oil.”

It comes from the following comment in today’s gospel: “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.” [Cf. John 12:  1-11]

In today’s gospel Mary poured on a lot of expensive perfume – anointing the feet of Jesus and then she dried his feet with her hair.

That was quite a scene. For starters women did not do such things – separation of men and women in society was very strict – so all these scenes in the gospels where Jesus is interacting with women – are quite radical.

I’m assuming we don’t get that – here in the United States – but in other parts of the world – these gospel texts are very revolutionary.

Based on the book, The Bookseller of Kabul, if some members of the Taliban get their way, this way of Jesus will be not be tolerated.

In today’s gospel, Judas is cast as the bad guy. He was against the anointing – and the motive is money. He used to help himself from the common purse – and if Mary could have donated the money to Jesus, Judas would have access to even more money.

PERFUME – AND  - SMOKE

We’ve all walked into an elevator or a room and someone very recently was in that same room – and they were heavy on the perfume.

I don’t know about you, but I wince – in the presence of heavy perfume.

I was once stationed in a place where an interesting dynamic happened every other day.

There were 2 smokers there and 1 heavy after shave lotion guy.

The aftershave guy was a big time anti-smoker. This happened before the ban of smokers to outside buildings. This also happened before the arrival of all kinds of cell phones.  Well the anti-smoker guy let it be known that after-smoking smell was to be banned. Well, the 2 smokers retaliated with the comment that aftershave lotion users should be banned – especially if you picked up the common phone after them.

Ugh – the aftershave scent could be horrible. And to be transparent, I preferred the after smoke scent to the aftershave scent.

CONCLUSION: A MESSAGE FOR TODAY

Enough of that….

A message for today for us could be the question: What scent do I leave in the rooms I’m in.

Today’s first reading would challenge us to be gentle and just.

Today’s psalm would challenge us to bring courage and trust – not fear into the rooms we’re in.

Today’s gospel challenges us to be lovers of Jesus as we bring his message and life into the rooms we’re in. Amen.

We who receive Jesus in the bread and the wine and are in communion with him – what is Jesus’ aftertaste taste like in us?