Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
When I was an Americorps member for City Year in Washington, D.C., I attended a church for a short time near my apartment. Many of the sermons I heard there were along the lines of "everything will be alright as long as you do good things."
I really struggled with this teaching. I was doing good things almost every day through my work with City Year, but I felt something was still missing. I felt the need for something more.
Jesus, in today's Gospel, calls us to that something more. A woman, Mark doesn't tell us who, comes in and anoints our Lord.
Those around Him are upset. 'This is money wasted. This could have given to the poor.'
Now Jesus doesn't discount the importance of helping the poor and needy. He simply says that they will always "have the poor with them to show kindness to them", but Jesus also says that they will not always have Him.
Helping others and doing good deeds is important, but it is not all that we need. Jesus is calling us to have a deeper relationship not just with one another, but with God as well.
Jesus is calling us to treat Him appropriately, that is with dignity and love. We may not have the physical presence of Jesus' human bodily form with us now to show deference and honor to, but Christ Jesus is present to us in other ways. Jesus is present to us through the Holy Spirit given to us in Baptism and through prayer. Jesus is also present to us in the "breaking of the bread." In this time when we are about to partake in this Eucharist together it is important to remember that and to use this opportunity to treat Jesus with reverence and respect as we take Jesus into ourselves through the act of Communion.