JESUS AS PERFUME

INTRODUCTION

It’s Monday of Holy Week. Today I’d like to reflect upon the image of Jesus as Perfume.

Jesus is the one whose presence can pervade and perfume our life.

It’s the image that hit me when I read today’s gospel which tells the story of Mary and how she perfumed the feet of Jesus – and then dried them with her hair.

PERFUME

We’ve all had the experience of walking into an elevator or into an empty room and being hit by the scent of perfume. Nobody is in the empty space, but we know that someone was there by the scent of lingering perfume.  Someone was there - someone with a strong perfume was there. Sometimes we know who it was; sometimes we don’t.

Or haven’t we had the experience of shopping and we pay for something by cash. We gave the cashier a twenty and he or she gives us some coins and two singles as change. And one of the singles is a dollar bill that is heavily perfumed. It must have been out on a heavy date last night. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know its history. Michel Quoist wrote a wonderful prayer poem about the journey of a twenty dollar bill.

How many times have we sat at the doctor’s office or somewhere and we start to get the scent of perfume coming from somewhere and surprise it’s one of those pull off perfume adds in a magazine.

Well, why not see the Bible being filled with passages that are perfume. Just open the book, pull up passages, and let the perfume drift out. Let the Spirit of the Lord come upon you as it did to Jesus. Let it come on us like perfume. Be anointed in the oil of gladness. Let the Good News invade us like perfume. Catch the scent of Jesus.

Perfume lingers. Perfume invades. Perfume clings. Perfume pervades.

SMOKE & STUFF IN THE AIR

We can say the same thing about smoke that we say about perfume. People with a good sense of smell say things like, “Somebody who uses this car smokes.” They don’t even have to open the ash tray to tell us that.

I’m sure it’s the same for people who suffer from allergies. People with allergies can tell us about stuff that is in the air or must be in the air, “because my allergies are acting up.”

And in the past 25 years we have been hearing all about the danger of asbestos, toxic fumes, chemicals, all kinds of stuff that might be in the air, but we don’t see them. They can move into us because they are in the atmosphere around and surrounding us.

PERFUME – JESUS AS PERFUME

This is true especially of perfume. That’s what I’m pushing in this homily: the image of perfume pervading the air or something – and then seeing Jesus as perfume.

An old writer named Ben Amin talked about “The person whose perfume is Jesus” – so I’m borrowing his image.

The person who spends time with Jesus gets perfumed by Jesus.

This is Holy Week. It’s important to spend time with Jesus all through the year, but this week is very important to spend extra time with Jesus. Spend time with Jesus. Catch his spirit, his atmosphere, his breath, his sweetness, his perfume.

Spend time letting the spirit of Jesus pervade us. Allow Jesus to wash our feet with water, and anoint us with perfume. Allow him to anoint our minds with his spirit. Anoint our heart, our attitudes with his love.

OBJECTION

Of course we can object. We can say that we are very busy. We can say things like: “Why isn’t our time spent in work? Why isn’t our time spent with the poor?”

But isn’t that the sentiment of Judas in today’s gospel?

Of course, there isn’t enough time. We’re always tied up.

But behind those words, aren’t we really saying that there are more important things to do than pray? Of course it’s important to be with and help the poor. And Jesus would respond that the poor are always with us – and he would add, “Stay with me. Could you not watch one hour? Be with me.”

And then when we go out of our inner room – or inner garden – then we can bring our Spirit to other rooms – to other gardens. The day will come when we will be called upon to rush into the world with Jesus’ Spirit – Jesus’ Breath, The Holy Spirit.

ISAIAH

Today’s first reading is from Isaiah.

Jesus seems to have read more of Isaiah than what he read that day in the synagogue in Nazareth.  He seems to have allowed the perfume, the spirit, of Isaiah pervade him. Jesus felt the need to spread Justice, to free prisoners, to lift people up.

We won’t be doing that unless we spend time in prayer. 

300 PIECES OF SILVER

And in today’s gospel, we see the opposite spirit. We see a mean spirit -  a toxic spirit. We smell that something is rotten with Judas. He has a toxic evil that kills people. In the spirit of Judas, we smell a bad spirit. We smell something’s fishy. We see that he has a selfish spirit.

The Gospel of John harps on this. He reports that Judas says, “Why isn’t this perfume sold and given to the poor?” It’s worth 300 pieces of silver - 300 days’ wages. Picture that: 300 days wages. It’s a year’s salary, if you allow for 52 Sabbaths and some holidays. Then he goes out to sell the perfume called Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

He was not a man whose perfume was Jesus.

CONCLUSION: ME AND YOU

When we walk into a room, what spirit do we bring?

Do I bring an “Oh yes” or an “Oh no?”

I asked myself that while preparing this homily. What do I emit? Do I give off a nice spirit or am I an old fart? Am I bad breath? Am I a toxic disaster? Do I give off fumes that destroy?

Am I the perfume called Jesus or the bad spirit called Judas, called Satan?

Each of us is called to be Good News. Do we bring that to each other when we walk into a room? Or am I bad news? Oh, God, not him again.

Turn to Jesus. Spend time with Jesus. Let him perfume us - wash us  -  invade us. Then we’ll bring that spirit to our world. So that all the world will be filled with the atmosphere of Jesus. People will know we were in the room, long after we are gone. The perfume of Jesus lingers. It’s around. It can fill the whole world.

QUOTES

Archilochus – “Old women should not seek to be perfumed.” Fragment 27 – Early 8^th Century BC – Bartlett’s, 62-1

MACBETH: “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Shakespeare, Macbeth, Bartlett’s 239:27

PERFUME:  “Perfumes, colors and sounds echo one another.” Charles Baudelaire, Bartlett’s 580:18

April 15, 2015

IN  THE  HEART

Aches, pains, hurts, memories,

desires, fires, loves, wonderings,

hungers, thirsts, and mysteries ….

These and so much more - which an

echocardiogram [ECG] or an

electrocardiogram [EKG] can’t see  ….

So we need another’s ear,

another’s heart, another’s voice,

to ask what’s going on in our heart ….

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

April    15, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“One should be able to return to the first sentence in  a  novel and find the resonances  of  the entire work.”  

Gloria Naylor, New 

York Times, June 2, 1985

I HAVE GRASPED YOU 

BY THE HAND

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for Monday in Holy Week is, “I have grasped you by the hand.”

I heard that message in today’s first reading from Isaiah 42:6.

I can picture that image.

HELD BY THE HAND

The little kid is scared. It’s her first day at school.  Her mom or dad or both are holding her hand as she is being led into school.

The old man is dying. He’s in hospice. His family is around the bed - and they are holding his hand.

I had a wedding on Saturday afternoon. The bridegroom  tells me at the  practice, “See that guy over there in the front bench.  When he was 12 and his sister was 9, they were at Disneyland. They weren’t in the car - when his parents were in the car  - and they were both killed.” I’m sure when those two kids went to their parents funeral Mass, when they walked into church - their hands were held by their uncles and aunts - coming down the aisle.

A neighbor dies at the age of 49.  His wife comes down the aisle - this time alone - but her neibghbor and her husband never hold hands walking across the parking lot towards the church - but this Monday morning they do.

GOD HOLDS US BY THE HAND

Isaiah - in today’s first reading - tells us that God holds us by the hand.

Picture ourselves walking into heaven God holding us by the hand.

This God who created the universe - this God who created everything - this God who gave us the gift of breath and life - this God who made all the crops - this God grasps us by the hand.

This God walks us out of the prison of darkness and into the light - walks us out holding our hand.

Kenneth Clark, in his fascinating book and in his TV documentary on Civilisation, talks about Europe in the 1800’s trying to grasp light - in the enlightment - joy in the great works of Bethoven - meaning - reason - hope - in great paintings.

That is true for every age and every person - out hands, our eyes, our ears,  are hoping to grab, grasp, answers, God, meaning.

Picture Christ’s hands nailed to the cross this week - wanting to have God his father to reach down to his son who was feeling forsaken and grasp him.

Picture Christ picturing Mary of Martha and Mary fame - just below him at Calvary - looking her in the eye - knowing she had anointed him with expensive perfume  just a short time earlier for his death.

Picture Mary his mother grasping Jesus’ hands  when they took him down from the cross.

CONCLUSION

During this Mass - take one of your hands and with it grasp your other hand and remember all those who held you by the hand during this life.

During communion at this mass when you receive Christ - hold him tight for a moment by hour hand and then enter into deeper communion with him.

HOLY WEEK 2019:

WHY IS THIS WEEK DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER WEEKS?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is: Holy Week 2019: Why Is This Week Different     from All Other Weeks?

We don’t have to be Einstein to know about the Relativity of Time.  He put his theory into various verbal boxes.  He told students at Princeton that an hour with your girlfriend can feel like 10 minutes - while 5 minutes visiting with your grandma in the nursing home - can feel like 5 hours. 

The one I like best is: “How long a minute takes depends on what side of the bathroom door you’re on.” Or “How long a sermon takes depends on who’s preaching.”  This goes for waiting for red lights to turn green - depending on how much of a rush you’re in - as well as in a dozen other human experiences.

HOLY WEEK

In Jewish homes where the Passover Meal in celebrated, the youngest member of the family asks the oldest leader of the family, “Why is this night different  than all other nights?”  And the youngest kid is told - with everyone listening, “This is the night we escaped - passed over -  from the slavery of Egypt - as we headed for the Promised Land.”

It took 40 years - but they finally made it. It must have felt much longer, because there was a lot of complaining in the desert.  “Moses! Why did we listen to you and your plans?”

Christians - Catholics are coming to the end of the 40 Days of Lent.

We are  asked today, Palm Sunday, “Why is this week different from all other weeks?

This week  we touch upon and experience some of the key final moments of Christ’s life as well as our lives.

This week we hear about Judas making his final decision to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. It’s called “Spy Wednesday”.   We’ve all experienced being betrayed or sold out because of money. And those moments in our life took longer than other moments.

This week we have Holy Thursday - when Jesus has his last meal with his disciples.  It’s the Passover Meal. We  hear about his washing of their feet.  We hear his last words - powerful words of love - especially in the gospel of John.  We hear about his begging his disciples to pray with him in the garden for at least an hour.  We all have or want to be with our loved ones when they are dying - and we get angry when some members don’t show. We remember last meals with our loved ones.  I was thinking yesterday about the  last meal I had with my brother in February of 1986 at Tio Pepe’s in Baltimore.  He had brain cancer but his taste buds had come back just in time for that meal. Delicious memory. He died that March at the age of 51.

This week we have Good Friday. The arrest. The torture. The bullying in jail. The crowd who praised him on Palm Sunday were screaming for his crucifixion on this Friday. Life. It has it’s joyful and sorrowful mysteries.  Life.  It has its stations of the cross.  Life. It has its deaths.

Next Sunday we arrive at Easter: the glorious mystery - the great faith moment.

CONCLUSION

This week - Holy Week 2019 -  can be different - if we take the time to make it different.

Your move.

Check the bulletin or go on line and plan to be at least one hour with the Lord.  Okay - the Holy Saturday night service is 2 hours and 17 minutes - and the Easter Mass is usually 59 minutes and 27 seconds depending upon who’s up front and how long it feels and what’s going on in your life.

April 14, 2019

INTRIGUING   WORDS

Smorgasbord, keepsake, curmudgeon,

moss, squeaky-clean, mucilage, laminate,

steamfitter, heirloom, G-man, minestrone,

seaweed, ramification, pink, slice, jar, jaw,

trumpet, sycamore, synthesis, nickel,

minimalist, tortoise, incognito, kayak, gill,

flax, elixir, dolly, grease, sesquipedalion ....

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

April    14, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“In the childhood memories of every good cook,  there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.”  

Barbara Costiryan, 

in “Holiday Entertaining” 

New York, 22 October 1984