Meditation – Mary in Bethany

MEDITATION – MARY IN BETHANY “Almighty ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to follow, caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross, graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering an so merit a share in his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” (Palm Sunday) These words will serve to help you contemplate the Passion of Jesus. We will have several hours, until tomorrow, to contemplate the immense love of the Heart of Jesus that on the cross was forever opened for us. His blood purifies us, and his water satisfies us forever. Saint Ignatius invites us to stand before the immense love of our Redeemer. Each one of you is invited to stand next to the cross of Christ and look at him, contemplate him, love him. "They will look upon him who they have pierced." (Jn 19:37) I want to explain to you how we are going to contemplate the Passion: I am going to give you suggestions based on the Gospel and the words of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in his Exercises, to help you meditate with fruit on this moment in the life of Jesus. When an entire month of Spiritual Exercises is done, a person spends a whole week focused on the Passion. We do not have that much time, but I want to say something in this regard. The Passion of Christ cannot be covered in a week, a month, a year, or a whole lifetime. Precisely for that reason, it must always be present in our Christian life, since it is a mystery that we must gradually assimilate, step by step, as we move along the path of our life. Wanting to "see everything" in a few days would be reckless. As these words simply want to help you meditate on the Passion, I would like us to look at an episode in the life of Christ that, in the Gospel of St. John, is the prelude to the events of the Passion. I am referring to the anointing of Mary in Bethany found in Chapter XII. As you know, in the fourth Gospel, the Passion begins from chapter XIII. Therefore, we are on the threshold of the sufferings of Christ in the Passion. 1 1. We return to Bethany, that place to which we have already been during these Spiritual Exercises and which brings such pleasant memories. "Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who Jesus had raised from the dead." St. John gives us the chronological fact: we are six days away from the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It is possible, therefore, to perceive an enormous tension in the environment. On the one hand, the enemies of Jesus are preparing his imminent death. Jesus is aware of this hostility. In fact, at the end of chapter 10 we had been told that the Pharisees had already tried to arrest him and he had left Jerusalem because of that. The disciples also saw that something was being prepared against Him. When the Lord finally decides to go up to Jerusalem, Thomas says openly: "Let us go to die with him." (Jn 11:16) On the other hand, more and more people came to Jesus. The Gospel of St. John tells us that especially after the Resurrection of Lazarus, the crowds followed Christ and many believed in Him. The Pharisees even say: "Look, the whole world has gone after him." (Jn 12:19) And the day after this anointing in Bethany, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place. The Lord was the great star that Easter and attracted all the attention, and also, the anger of those who wished to see him dead. Therefore, there was a feeling in the environment that something big was being prepared. Maybe that's why the Lord returns to that little corner where he feels at home. In Bethany he had always been comfortable. He was among people who loved him and whom he loved. To me, these details of the Gospel are charming because they reveal to what extent Jesus was truly man. The divine Person of the Word assumed a human nature like ours. Jesus also had a "human psychology" and we see him going to seek refuge, warmth, company, friendship and understanding. 2 2. “Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.” Sitting at the table was Lazarus, whom Jesus had resurrected shortly before. Lazarus represents us, we were dead and Jesus has revived us. "Our friend Lazarus," Jesus calls him in the preceding chapter. (v. 11) It would be wonderful if Jesus could call you friend, too, after these Exercises. It really depends on the grace of God, which you will not be lacking, and on your decision about the life that you choose to take from now on. At the end of this story, the Evangelist will say the following: "(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." (V. 9-11) It would be equally beautiful if the same happened with you at the conclusion of these Exercises: that people believed in Jesus because of you. May your family and friends desire to draw closer to the Lord when they see the miracle of your resurrection after these days of retreat. We return to see Martha serving, just as we contemplated her last Tuesday, but with an attitude of a totally different heart. She has just experienced the resurrection of her brother and has seen the power of Christ over death itself. Now she does not complain as before. She serves the Lord, but has understood that "there is need of only one thing" and, in that service she does for the Lord, she listens to him and loves him. Where is Mary, the third in discord? It is evident that Mary also had knowledge of what was being prepared. Did Jesus tell them? Did her woman’s intuition perceive it? Did she hear it from someone else, among the many who went to Bethany to see Lazarus in those days? We do not know, but she receives that light. She knows that Jesus has very little time left to live. His end is near and soon her Master, the one she loves, is going to be taken away. Therefore, there is a contrast between the joy of that banquet that has been prepared in honor of Jesus and the weight that Mary feels in her heart. When two people love each other, there is an attunement that makes you experience what your loved one is feeling. The Lord had announced for the third time to his disciples on this last trip to Jerusalem that suffering and death awaited him before he was resurrected. However, the Gospel notes that "they 3 understood nothing of this; the word remained hidden from them and they failed to comprehend what he said." (Lk 18:34) The Lord must have experienced a certain loneliness with his disciples. When we try to share with someone something that is important to us, and do not find understanding in the other person, that saddens us. Mary, on the other hand, has that harmony with the Heart of Jesus and in his eyes discovers the drama that is about to be unleashed. Again, this is a quality to which women seem to be more inclined by nature. Says Edith Stein: “Her strength lies in her intuitive grasp of the concrete and the living, especially of the personal. She has the gift of adapting herself to the inner life of others, to their goal orientation and working methods. Feelings are central to her as the faculty which grasps concrete being in its unique nature and specific value; and it is through feeling that she expresses her attitude.” Mary has adapted herself to the inner life of Jesus. She has discovered in the Heart of Jesus that the sadness of death is about to knock on the door. Maybe they were celebrating that dinner in gratitude for the resurrection of Lazarus, which had happened a few days before. But Mary could not sit down at the table as if nothing was happening, since those would be their last hours in the company of Jesus. Speaking of the death of a friend of his, St. Augustine writes in his Confessions: "I was astonished that other mortals lived, since he whom I loved, as if he would never die, was dead; and I wondered still more that I, who was to him a second self, could live when he was dead. Well did one say of his friend, Thou half of my soul, for I felt that my soul and his soul were but one soul in two bodies; and, consequently, my life was a horror to me, because I would not live in half. And therefore, perchance, was I afraid to die, lest I should die wholly whom I had so greatly loved." Mary, with that delicacy that is so characteristic of her, could have similar thoughts: "How can I be happy when he will soon die, he whom I love? How can 4 I continue living if the Lord dies, who is not half of my soul, but my whole life?" Her life was a horror to her from then on because she could not live torn in half.

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