Who are you this Holy Week?
In today’s Gospel, the Gospel for the Monday in Holy Week,(John 12.1-11) we come into a homely scene.
Jesus has dinner with friends – Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, at Bethany. At the meal Martha is busy serving at the table, something she does well. Mary, with quiet contemplation, anoints Jesus’ feet with a highly perfumed and costly oil. Lazarus is simply there with his friend at the meal table. Judas is there, moaning because things aren’t being done as he would wish.
Each year for us all Holy Week is different. We are at different places in our lives. Our circumstances and relationships may have developed or changed. We enter Holy Week from a different place each year – where are you in your life this Holy Week?
Look at this simple scene, imagine yourself as one of the three Martha, Lazarus and Mary. During Holy Week this year which one will you be most like? Perhaps last year you were very busy, doing, getting things ready, like Martha. Or perhaps last year was a time of reflection and prayer, like Mary.
Perhaps this year you feel more called by God to be like Lazarus – an ‘alongsider,’ being present, watching, wondering.
This Holy Week take time to be with Jesus in imagination and prayer as the days of the week unfold.
Consider which of the three friends of Jesus, you are most like this Holy Week. Martha, serving and doing, Mary, praying and giving, or Lazarus alongside, watching, being with Christ.
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