Palm Sunday

Holy Week Homilies by Abbot Paul Stonham 2006

Photo: Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. 14th Century Monastery of St Benedict, Subiaco

Palm Sunday 2006

"I tell you solemnly, wherever throughout the whole world the Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will also be told, in remembrance of her." With these words Jesus silences the critics of the unnamed woman who at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper anointed him in preparation for his death and burial with an alabaster jar full of very costly ointment, pure nard. "She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial."

You will notice that the burial of Jesus at the very end of St Mark's Passion narrative is so hurried that there was no time to anoint the body. Joseph of Arimathaea simply wrapped it in a shroud and laid it to rest "in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock". The women were "watching at a distance" and "took note of the place where he was laid". However, when early in the morning on the first day of the week they returned to anoint Jesus, his body was no longer there. All they saw was an empty tomb and an angel telling them that he had risen from the dead.

Passion Sunday really commemorates two events - not only the solemn entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," but also the anointing at Bethany. In the Roman Rite, but not in the Ambrosian Rite of Milan or the eastern rites, the anointing at Bethany became sidelined. How could it compete with the blessing of palm and olive branches, children with tea-towels on their heads and donkeys, or the powerful singing of "Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit", surely the most sublime, wonderful and evocative piece of liturgical drama ever written?

We have been conditioned into doing the very opposite of what Jesus told us to do: proclaim, celebrate and remember that woman and what she did at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. She, the true disciple of Jesus, is starkly contrasted in St Mark's Gospel with "Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, who approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them". The faith, love, generosity and sacrifice of a woman are contrasted with the treachery, self-centredness, and money-grasping betrayal of Judas.

Although we no longer anoint the dead, we do anoint the living. We anoint the sick with holy oil, and in baptism, confirmation and holy orders we anoint with chrism. We also anoint the walls of a church and the altar on the day of their consecration. Whoever and whatever symbolises Christ is anointed. You could say that sacramental anointing, that putting on of Christ which is the work of the Holy Spirit, was inaugurated at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper by an unnamed woman. Later on various accounts of anointing would be conflated. If there is any proof of the authenticity of the canonical gospels it is that there was no collusion among the authors. I mention this because of the vast amount of uninformed debate going on at the moment over the so-called Gospel of Judas. "She," said Jesus, "she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial."

In every sacrament we enter into and become part of the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. We are initiated and strengthened as members of his Body, the Church. The Eucharist, the memorial par excellence of the Paschal mystery, "Do this in remembrance of me," can only be celebrated by those who are baptised and confirmed, can only be presided over by those who have been ordained and should normally only be celebrated in a consecrated building and on a consecrated altar, thus manifesting the real presence of Christ and the unity of the Church. All this goes back not only to the Upper Room and the Last Supper but also to that good work performed by a woman, a woman without a name, at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper.

"I tell you solemnly, wherever throughout the whole world the Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will also be told, in remembrance of her." My dear friends in Christ, never forget that woman, remember her always and thank God for what she did. Let us follow her example, not that of Judas. Let us die with Christ and rise with him this Holy Week that through him, with him and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit we may give glory to God our Father for ever and ever. Amen.