Monday of Holy Week
Readings for Monday of Holy Week

First Published: Monday, April 10, 2006

The plot thickens - More!

Reflection:

It is interesting that our Gospel finds Jesus exactly at the place where we are during our Holy Week celebrations. It is also interesting that John tells the story we heard yesterday in the Passion narrative from St. Mark about Jesus being anointed (as if for burial) but this time, instead of an unnamed woman coming to do this, it was Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. We met this pair a few weeks back in the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. If we link the two stories, it becomes quite believable that Mary would do this. It is in keeping with her character.

Tracing the story a bit further, we hear John speaking very badly about Judas Iscariot, actually calling him a thief. I point this out only because of the recent news stories circulating about a new Gospel being brought to the public eye, the so called Gospel of Judas. The press I noticed was very excited about this for about two or three days because (big surprise) it painted Judas in a positive light. When no one from the Christian community got defensive about it, the story died for lack of emotional impact.

It is a little disappointing to me that none of the major networks has on their staff someone sufficiently well versed in biblical scholarship to have surfaced this story in its proper context. The headline should have been; Another Apocryphal Gospel Recovered. It is clear from the way the press reacted that they thought they had another Di Vinci Code on their hands. They had no ideal that there were much more explosive manuscripts out there, like the Gospel of St. Thomas (You can read this one at the New Advent web site (newadvent.org).) Nice try secular news. If only you had the faith of a mustard seed you might have gotten it close to right.

Oh, and since I mentioned the biggest peace of fiction to be represented as fact in recent memory, I may as well just finish this distraction from Holy Week with another personal disappointment. I find it very sad that a person like Dan Brown could publish a work of fiction (the afore mentioned Di Vinci Code) and have it treated as fact by so many. (Doesn't it kind of remind you of the radio cast of the War of the Worlds by Orson Wells?) It turns my stomach when I hear people treat it so well. Worse Dan Brown got rich off it and that will encourage others. As a person of faith I find the actions of Dan Brown to be proof positive that Satan is operative in our society and his influence can seem right to the ignorant and dissuade them from the truth.

Sorry about the side trip into secular press and publication, back to our spiritual journey. Jesus character is predicted in a credible way by Isaiah in the first reading, again completely in character;

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
Upon whom I have put my Spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
Until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.(Is 42 1-4)

Here is our model, the example he left us. It is not the person with a megaphone crying out from a street corner but the gentle person helping the homeless person in a shelter for feeding them in a community kitchen. The Lord of Light came not as a hurricane but as a gentle breeze that changed the world. As we march toward the events that unfold this week let us all remember the man Jesus, gentle and humble, walking toward his awful fate knowing it was coming but faithful to his Fathers wishes. Pax