NOTES for Mar 14:29-30

When reading the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper and of everything that followed, one cannot help asking: could it have been otherwise? And if it could not, if "the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him," does this not mean that no one is guilty of anything, that all the participants in those events were merely acting out a drama, not written by them, predetermined in advance so that none of them could change anything in it? But why, then, does Jesus Himself, speaking of the inevitability of what is happening, immediately add: "but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed"? Perhaps, after all, there is inevitability and there is inevitability. Indeed, after the fall, the earthly path of the Messiah could not be without obstacles; one way or another it had to end in suffering and death. And yet, even in such a state of affairs, everyone is free to make the decision he considers right. Yes, in a fallen world every community inevitably has its own Judas; but this does not predetermine the specific choice of a specific person, and for that very reason responsibility for the choice he has made is not removed from him. Besides, none of the participants in that drama was, quite obviously, thinking about any predestination. Beautiful stories in the style of Leonid Andreyev are out of place here, and this is perhaps the most frightening thing of all. Jesus simply got in the way of many people, for different but entirely earthly reasons. And if so, then however sorrowful it is to admit, any of us could potentially have found ourselves in the place of His persecutors. The choice always remains. The main thing is for it to be the right one.

The matter is moving toward its resolution. The true traits of the characters and their real desires appear more and more clearly. The scribes and Pharisees no longer argue. They have lost every argument. And this did not convince them, did not stop them, did not make them doubt. "Brood of vipers," as John called them. They argued with the Truth for a long time; now all that remains is to kill it. At last they have openly understood their real desire: "to take Him by stealth and kill Him." They had done this in their hearts long ago. They are concerned only that the people not think anything bad of them.

The woman, however, "who was known in the city as a sinner," could have feared anger and condemnation. It is impossible for her to hide her vices. Yet she is the one who brings the precious ointment. The impulse of her heart draws her irresistibly to Jesus. In it everything is expressed: love, gratitude, repentance. She does not think about what people will say about her.

Judas finally goes to carry out his betrayal. He too has made his decision.

What else can Jesus still manage to do for us, for His disciples, for people? What could He do at all? Give Himself. Remain with us. The Paschal Meal with the disciples continues to this day. Jesus comes to us, as He promised, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The covenant with God, the New Covenant, is renewed at every Liturgy. The Bread and Wine, transformed by His Spirit, nourish and satisfy each one: "...and they all drank of it." He remains faithful to the end and forever. And our heart rejoices after Communion, as did the disciples: they "sang a hymn."

At the same time, however, another theme runs through the passage: the theme of betrayal. Judas betrays. Peter will deny Him. The disciples are distressed and doubt themselves: "Is it I?" They do not know what is in their heart. They would like to "die with Him," but it turns out they cannot. They still cannot decide. And we?

And why does this keep happening to us? Everything has been given to us: wisdom, truth, love, life. Yet we doubt, deny, and often betray. Is it possible to remain faithful to the end? What is our decision? What is in our heart?

Today's reading includes several episodes linked by one theme: the theme of faithfulness and betrayal. It begins with the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with precious aromatic oil ("myrrh") (vv. 1-11). It is noteworthy that the description of the event itself is preceded here by a mention of the chief priests' and scribes' desire to kill Jesus (vv. 1-2), and immediately after it follows a mention of Judas's betrayal (vv. 10-11), so that the story of Jesus' anointing and the story of Judas's betrayal merge into one and become a single story. In the evangelist's account, Judas's betrayal is somehow connected with the act of the woman who poured the oil on Jesus' head. It would seem that there can be no connection here, especially since the thought of betrayal, as usually happens, must have arisen in Judas's mind long before the final decision was made. But it is entirely possible that at that moment something in the situation became the final push after which he decided to carry out what he had long been planning. A clue in this case may be the mention of the indignation openly shown by some of those present, who considered such use of costly oil too wasteful (vv. 4-5). But Jesus at once puts everything in its place: first He Himself, and only then help for the poor (vv. 6-9). And in this way He points us to one of the most important laws of spiritual life: concrete, living relationships with God and with Christ are more important than anything else, while everything else, even something as important as works of mercy, is only a consequence of those relationships. The poor will always be in the world. Plans to rid the world completely of poverty are utopian, and charity, evidently, does not have that as its goal. It is only a means to something else, a way of expressing one's love for a neighbor who needs help. And if this deeply personal relationship to the one you help disappears, charity ceases to be a work of love and becomes an abstract idea, which of course can also be served, like any idea, but which in that case ceases to be mercy in the Gospel sense. Gospel love is not an idea and not an emotion; it is a relationship, and therefore, unlike ideas or emotions, which are often quite abstract, it is always utterly concrete. And therefore at the Last Supper, where this relationship of Jesus to His disciples is revealed in all its fullness, the bread and wine become His Body and His Blood (vv. 22-25). Every sacred meal among believing Jews was always, above all, an expression of spiritual unity and brotherly love, the very thing that reaches its ultimate fullness in Gospel love. And the more clearly this unity and this love were revealed, the more spirit there was in such a meal and the less there was of pure, unspiritualized nature. But the love of an ordinary person never by itself reaches the fullness that can completely transform nature and spiritualize it. This is available only to the One who bears in Himself the whole fullness of God and can love to the end, so that in His relationship to the one He loves there is no longer any place for untransformed nature. And then before us are no longer bread and wine, as before, but Body and Blood, which unite us quite truly with the One who came to give us the Kingdom. Yet precisely this depth of relationship can become unbearable for someone who is not ready to trust to the end. It is impossible to follow Jesus only in the name of an idea; without a personal relationship with Him, without the love that He gives to everyone who is ready to trust Him, such a campaign can end only in spiritual collapse. Apparently this is exactly what happened to Judas, who may well have been ready to accept Jesus as a leader and ideological inspiration, but apparently did not love Him at all. And this lack of love led Judas to spiritual collapse, which in his case turned into betrayal of the Teacher. And the push, evidently, was precisely that Jesus pointed to Himself as the main thing His disciples had. For here it was necessary to accept Jesus Himself, not as the leader of a movement or the bearer of an idea, but precisely Himself, as a Person, as a Man who simply had to be loved, loved humanly, as friends are loved. To love, or to betray. This is the choice before which, at some moment in his spiritual life, everyone stands who has decided for some reason to follow Jesus. It is the choice on which depends whether we will be in the Kingdom or in darkness.