THE  METAPHOR  OF  FRAGRANCE

INTRODUCTION
 
The title of my homily for this Monday in Holy Week  is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.”
 
Or perfume.
 
We go into church on Easter Sunday morning.
 
We pause. We’re stopped. We stand there.
 
We breathe in the fragrance of the lilies.
 
“Uuuuum good!”
 
It’s Easter.
 
Christ has risen from the dead.  Alleluia.
 
Again and again.  Alleluia.  Alleluia.
 
Have you heard Leonard Cohen’s Halleluiah.

 

A lot of people are singing it and variations on it.
 
It contains various narratives.
 
Sorry to say, some of them  are fuzzy for me – but the way they sing the word “Halleluiah”  seems to sell the different versions –the different narratives.

But there are variations with wonderful spiritual soundings as well.

I would hold that  the Easter Vigil Exultet Resurrection Narrative is deeper and better – and has more religion – Christianity and Judaism.

 

THE FRAGRANCE METAPHOR ON AN ELEVATOR
 
The title of my homily is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.”
 
Spring has sprung.
 
We get on an elevator.
 
A beautiful young woman gets on the same elevator with us.
 
It’s Monday morning.
 
The elevator rises upwards.
 
The young woman fills the elevator with the fragrance of a rich perfume – as well as her beauty – her youth  - and her smile.
 
The fragrance is not overwhelming.
 
We close our eyes and breathe in everything.
 
She gets off on the 5^th floor in her dark blue suit. It’s the floor for an accounting firm – where she works.  
 
Her fragrance remains – in the car – along with us.
 
We’re going to the 8^th floor of this same office building. It’s filled with lawyers – one of whom we are scheduled to meet -  to take care of some family business – paper work -  for our mother – who is in a nursing home – sometimes with the fragrance of mom’s perfume and now incontinence at times.
 
Life.
 
The old and the young.
 
Fragrance.
 
We get the metaphor – the fragrances of life.
 
TODAY’S GOSPEL
 
We get today’s gospel – John 12: 1-11-  the story of Jesus feet being anointed by Mary.
 
We get the words  in today’s gospel, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil” – “the  liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic hard”  - which Mary used to anoint the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair….”
 
As priests here today on retreat we know what it’s like to be like Martha.  We serve.  We sweat the little stuff of service.
 
As priests we know what it’s like to be like Mary too.  We anoint babies with the sacred oil.  We anoint people when they are dying.
 
And the fragrance  of the sacraments remains with us – after the baptism – after we walk from the church – or the drive home from the hospital or the home of someone who is sick and we just visited them.
 
We itch our nose or chin and the fragrance of the oil is still on our right thumb.
 
We like the change of pace today’s gospel gives us.
 
The house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus – has the scent of wonderful.
 
Lazarus catches the scent and smiles – Lazarus who recently had the scent of death all over him – till Jesus showed up and  brought him back from the dead.
 
That house was sacramental.
 
That house had the scent of Christ in it.
 
A MESSAGE
 
We Christians are called to be like Christ: to be salt and light.
 
The world needs both.
 
How about the metaphor of fragrance?
 
How about the world needing the fragrance of Jesus Christ in it?
 
How about the Christian being described as a breath of fresh air?
 
None of us hopefully would like  to be described as “stinkos” – of full of s or being a bs-er.
 
None of us hopefully wants to be described as dead.
 
Death stinks.
 
Hopefully we are alive – all our life – that we fill the rooms we enter with the fragrance of grace – the  fragrance of Christ.
 
I love the question: what happens when we walk into a room?
 
Do we get an “Oh yes!” vote or an “Oh no!” vote?
 
I was stationed with a priest who told me he was standing there in the back of church and the announcer announced his name – Our main celebrant today is Father X – and he heard someone say out loud, “Oh no!”
 
That hurt – the fragrance of that hurt lingered in his brain for weeks.
 
I found out who said that.
 
I told him that the “Oh no!” voice guy was a PITA  person – but that didn’t help.
 
CONCLUSION
 
I’ve said enough for this homily on the metaphor of fragrances. 
 
Right now I gotta come up with a conclusion.
 
I guess today it could be – Be like Mary and spray the world with words of beauty – with the fragrance of love and care – not hurting words, etc.