March 30, 2026
Monday of Holy Week
Fr. Corrado Sica
The Lord give you peace.
I am Fr. Corrado Sica, a friar of the community of San Salvatore in Jerusalem. I am organist of the Holy Sepulchre, director of the schola cantorum of the students of the theological Studium of Jerusalem and of the Magnificat Choir, and vice director of the Magnificat Music Institute of the Custody of the Holy Land.
The passage of John in chapter 12, verses 1 to 11 recounts the anointing of Jesus at Bethany, an episode that contrasts the logic of gratuitous giving with that of selfish calculation. Set in Bethany six days before Passover, it takes on a profound resonance when reread today in the context of the Holy Land marked by conflicts and divisions. Bethany is separated from Jerusalem by a concrete wall and military checkpoints.
Precisely in this place Mary performs a gesture of extravagant love, anointing the feet of Jesus with 300 grams of pure nard, a perfume of immense value, about a year's salary. It is not a functional act but an outpouring of gratitude and love that fills the whole house. The house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus represents those spaces of spirituality and hospitality that even today Christians and local communities strive to keep alive despite restrictions on movement and geographical isolation.
It represents the capacity to welcome Jesus into our homes and daily life, to create spaces of Bethany in our families where friendship and listening prevail over anxiety. And in a world like today, dominated by efficiency and usefulness, Mary's gesture challenges us to recover gratuitousness, therefore spending time and energy for God and for others is never a loss but is the true fragrance of Christian life.
Judas criticizes the use of the precious nard, invoking the needs of the poor to conceal his own interest. The text reveals that his heart is closed and calculating, incapable of understanding that true love is not measured by money. And even today, in territories where humanitarian resources are often scarce, Mary's gesture reminds us that human dignity is not nourished by bread alone.
Honoring the body of the other, especially when it is threatened by suffering or death, is an act of supreme justice. It is the affirmation that beauty and gratuitous love have the right to exist even among the ruins. Jesus defends Mary, interpreting the gesture as an anticipation of his burial anointing. Therefore it is the recognition of the Messiah who is about to give his life on the cross.
It is also a reminder of the reality of continuous service. "The poor you will always have with you," says Jesus, "but you will not always have me." Poverty today is not only economic, but also poverty of peace and of rights.
Jesus identifies himself with the body that is about to be buried, inseparably linking worship of God to care for the fragile human being. Thus, serving the poor today means working for reconciliation in a context of violence.
The presence of Lazarus, raised from the dead, is living testimony of a miracle. It is a living proof of the divinity of Jesus, so much so that the chief priests want to kill him as well to stop the faith of the people. Lazarus, here and today, represents those who by their very existence disturb the logic of power and death.
And just like Lazarus, who attracted the crowds simply by being alive, today our joy and our new life are the most powerful instrument to lead others to faith.
Peace and good from the Holy Land.
