The Anointed One and the Cross

John 12:1-11
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 Jesus, 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.

Mary understood the love Jesus carried to the Cross. She anointed Him for death.

Psalm 116:12-13 How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the Lord's name.

Reflection by Mother Elvira Petrozzi, Foundress of Cenacola Community, welcoming the lost and desperate in sixty-two houses in fifteen countries.
At the end of Lent, I was thinking about how important it is to know how to live the painful moments, the suffering, being cast aside, loneliness, moments of failure, disappointment, and unfaithfulness, moments that are part of the human existence because they are part of the human reality. Sometimes the Lord wants us to participate in human suffering. In Community, we have a three-word expression to help us get through moments of suffering and provocation: "silence, swallow and suffer." It is the mysterious school of the Cross, of our God who did not avoid the Cross, but welcomed it, experiencing the Cross in the body of His crucified Son. Jesus invites us to look at Him, to ask Him for faith and love, so that our heart will not lose hope, and after the darkness of Good Friday, we will know how to capture in our own lives the radiant light of Easter morning! The Risen Jesus is our true hope, because in Him pain and death are defeated.