NOTES for Joh 12:1-19

Responding to Judas’s remark, the Lord says that, unlike the poor, He will not always be with the disciples. He departed, yet He remained—this is the mystery of our faith. And He remained in those very poor whom Judas supposedly wanted to comfort (remember: “What you did to them, you did to Me” in Mt. 25?). There really are many poor people all around, and it is not only a matter of wealth or poverty—everyone lacks the subsistence minimum of love, so what are we if not poor? It is precisely through this mystical presence of Jesus among us—on our streets, in the subway, in our homes—that we can follow Mary of Bethany, who showed mercy to her Lord by anointing Him with precious perfume. To show love to the poor by loving them—this is our anointing, for which Christ is always near.