THE  HOUSE  WAS  FILLED 

WITH  THE  FRAGRANCE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The House Was Filled With the Fragrance.”

Today’s gospel from John has the wonderful words and easy to remember scene, “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.”

That’s John 12: 3. I wonder if a Bible publisher ever thought of putting one of those perfume packs you find in magazines into a Bible right here at this text.

If you don’t have a favorite Bible text - and if you want to be an evangelist - there’s one text to put out there - after you put it in here [Point to our brain.]

So if someone asks you, “Do you have a favorite Bible text, say, “John 12:3.”

It’s not my favorite, but it’s up there. Mine is Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way you’ll fulfill the Law of Christ.”

Another translation: “Help one another to carry these heavy loads, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Do that and your fragrance will linger like perfume. Come to think of it, in this homily I'm connecting Galatians 6:2 with John 12:3.

ELEVATOR RIDES

We’ve all gotten into an elevator. It’s empty - but soon we get the scent of a powerful perfume.

We wonder who just got off this elevator on another floor.

We  think: it’s much sweeter than getting into a car filled with cigarette smell.

I once preached a parish mission in Pottstown, Pennsylvania - home of Mrs. Smith’s Pies.

What a town with a beautiful smell!

We made our novitiate in Ilchester, Maryland. Down below us on the Patapsco River was a box factory. It was owned by the Bartgis Brothers. At times it had a horrible smell and the river would be different colors - some sometimes quite ugly.

What would it be like to grow up next to a beer factory, a perfume factory or sardine canning plant?

THE PERFUME CALLED JESUS

I’ve preached on this text from John and this first reading from Isaiah - many times.

I remember calling one sermon, “The Perfume Called Jesus.”

The good person, the servant, that Isaiah spoke about in today's first reading from Isaiah 42: 1-7 - is put here on Monday of Holy Week - because Jesus did what this Suffering Servant in Isaiah talked about what God does.  God grasps our hand. God forms us. God is a light for us. God opens our eyes. God frees us from confinement and the dungeon and the darkness.

Picturing all that, we'll be saying: wow God smells good. God is a powerful perfume.

The gospel for today is saying that’s Jesus.  If we do what Christ did - we become perfume for the elevators of the world. We lift each other up.

The opposite has a horrible smell: to be like Judas - the thief - the phony baloney type person.

When Judas saw Mary anointing the feet of Jesus he said, “What a waste of money. Why couldn’t this money she spent on the perfume be given to the poor?"  

John adds, “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.

TWO CONCLUSIONS

Enough ....  Perfume is an obvious experience.

Two conclusions:

First, this Good Friday - when you venerate the cross -  if you have the opportunity, kiss Jesus’ feet, or the bottom of the cross and pray, “Jesus, rub some of your fragrance off on me, so I can do the same for others.”

Secondly, a blessing: "May your home and your memory, your life and your story, have the fragrance of many wonderful people who have been in your life."

I remember a lady telling me, “I still have the fragrance of my husband on some of his t-shirts - in a plastic bag - and he’s been gone 4 years now.