Holy Monday
Memorial of the martyrs for the sake of the Gospel.
Memorial of blessed Omeljan Kovc, a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest who was killed in the Majdanek concentration camp in 1944 for having defended the Jews from persecution.

Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

John 12,1-11

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot -- one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him-said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?' He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents. So Jesus said, 'Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.' Meanwhile a large number of Jews heard that he was there and came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus as well, since it was on his account that many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

With Palm Sunday, we entered the Holy Week. The Gospel of John begins the narration of the Passion with the dinner in Bethany at the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus - a family that was very dear to Jesus. Lazarus, whom Jesus had recently brought back to life, was there too. At a certain point Mary gets up, comes close to Jesus, and kneels at his feet, covering them with ointment and then drying them with her hair. The house is filled with the smell of the perfume. She might have done this out of gratitude for the gift of her brother's life. It is in any event a gesture of love that speaks of gratuitousness. Indeed Mary does not calculate at all how much might be wasted. She is only thinking about the love of this prophet who gave back her brother and who had loved their home so tenderly. But Judas thinks differently. For him, this gesture so full of love is indeed an unnecessary waste. In reality - the evangelist notes - he said this because he was interested in the money, or better in his own advantage, not the poor. Jesus responds immediately to Judas and wants Mary to continue her loving gesture: the ointment she uses foreshadows the oil that will be poured on his body before his burial. Jesus adds, "The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." Mary was the only one who understood that Jesus was going to be put to death and therefore needed special affection and closeness, just like every dying person. This woman who had let herself be overwhelmed by Jesus' love teaches us how to be close to this extraordinary Teacher over the next few days and how to be close to the weak and the sick every day. In that tender and loving act, made up of simple and concrete gestures, is a symbol of the path of salvation: when we are close to the poor, we are close to Jesus himself.