Translated by Qwen.
Father Noël Alexandre, Commentary on John 12
Literal Commentary
Jn 12:1-3: Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover—that is, on the sixth day before the Passover—came to Bethany, where Lazarus had been dead, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And they made him a supper there. He was invited to supper by Simon the Leper, a kinsman or friend of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; and Martha served, diligently, according to her custom, that she might honor Jesus. But Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him, that the truth of his resurrection might not be called into doubt.
Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of spikenard, pure, precious—of true and exquisite nard—and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Jn 12:4-6: Therefore one of his disciples says, Judas Iscariot, who was about to betray him: Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii—little coins equivalent to approximately 115 of French currency—and given to the poor? The impious thief cloaked his avarice under the name of piety. Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor—not that he had any concern for the poor—but because he was a thief, and having the money box, he carried—that is, received or deposited for purchasing necessities—the things that were put in, as steward of the household of Christ. From which it appears that even for those living the most perfect life, common possessions are not an obstacle, from which necessities for sustaining life may be provided.
Jn 12:7-8: Therefore Jesus said: Let her alone to do what she is doing, that she may keep it for the day of my burial—that she may anticipate my burial by this work of piety, which she will not be able to render to me when dead, inasmuch as by my resurrection I shall anticipate this her office. Christ teaches that the pouring out of that ointment was directed by the Holy Spirit not to luxury but to a mystery. For the poor you will always have with you—there will never be lacking among you poor persons upon whom you may confer benefits—but me you will not always have—that is, you will not always have me present so that you may be able to render to me, while I am living a mortal life and visibly conversing with you, similar offices of piety. Confer Matthew 26 and Mark 14.
Jn 12:9-11: Therefore a great crowd of the Jews knew that he was there—a great multitude of Jews learned that Jesus had returned to Bethany and had supped with Lazarus—and they came not only on account of Jesus, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, stirred by curiosity. But the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also, because many on account of him were going away from the Jews. Convicted by the miracle of the resurrection, they were withdrawing themselves from the party of the priests, scribes, and Pharisees, and believing in Jesus as the true Messiah.
Moral Commentary
Jn 12:1-3: Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus had been dead. And they made him a supper there, and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.
Bethany is the "House of obedience." There Jesus feasts with his friends. There active charity—of which Martha is a figure—ministers to Christ Jesus in his members. There sinners, raised up and purified through penance, and confirmed in good by the visitation of his grace, recline at the sacred Table with him and are refreshed by his precious Body and Blood. There contemplative charity, intent upon God and Christ Jesus, pours forth in his sight the faith, religion, prayer, adoration, and entire soul which occupies it; it distributes alms copiously to the poor, and with the largess of temporal goods wipes away their tears and alleviates their miseries.
She anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair. Hairs seem to be superfluous parts of the body. You have what to do with your superfluities: what is superfluous to you is necessary for the feet of the Lord. The feet of the Lord are his poor: "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40).
And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. A good odor is a good reputation, diffused by good works and holy examples. Those who live wickedly yet are called Christians do injury to Christ; concerning whom it is said that "the name of the Lord is blasphemed" through them (Rom. 2:24). If through such persons the name of the Lord is blasphemed, through good persons the name of the Lord is praised. Whence the Apostle says: "We are the good odor of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing; to the latter indeed an odor of death unto death, but to the former an odor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor. 2:15-16).
Happy are those who live with a good odor! But what is more wretched than those who die by a good odor? You have loved one who does well: you have lived by a good odor. You have envied one who does well: you have died by a good odor. Surely, because you wished to die, have you therefore made that odor evil? The bee converts flowers into honey and wax; the spider converts all things into poison. Do not envy, and the good odor will not kill you. The good odor of Mary's piety killed the avaricious Judas.
Jn 12:5: "Why," he says, "was this ointment not sold for denarii and given to the poor?" O blind avarice, which estimates the Son of God at merely thirty denarii, but the ointment at three hundred! To the avaricious man, eternal things are worthless compared to temporal things; divine things compared to earthly things; God himself is worthless. What is expended for the honor of God, for the adornment of his house, for the ornament of churches and altars, he thinks is lost. Under the appearance of charity, he murmurs against the works of charity.
Jn 12:6 Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box. Judas was a sacrilegious thief. Jesus knew him to be a thief, yet did not expose him, but rather tolerated him, and thereby demonstrated to us an example of patience in bearing with evil men in the Church.
Jn 12:6 cont.: Judas was a sacrilegious thief. If crimes are distinguished in any court whatsoever, theft and peculation (for peculation is said to be theft from the public treasury, and theft from private property is not judged in the same way as from public property), how much more severely ought the sacrilegious thief to be judged, who has dared to take not from anywhere, but from the Church! Whoever steals anything from the Church is compared to the lost Judas.
There are thieves in the ecclesiastical order: whatever cleric expends ecclesiastical revenues—of which he is not master, but only steward and dispenser—on uses of cupidity or vanity; whoever from these gathers money boxes for enriching relatives; whoever retains from the altar anything beyond food and clothing; whoever does not distribute to the poor and other pious causes what remains beyond honest sustenance: he is a thief, a sacrilegious man, a new Judas. "Whatever you retain from the altar beyond necessary food and simple clothing is not yours; it is rapine, it is sacrilege" (St. Bernard, Epistle 2).
Jn 12:7-8: Therefore Jesus said: Let her alone, that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have.
Love anticipates offices rather than defers them. Mary greatly loved Christ Jesus; therefore she anticipated his burial by the pouring out of precious ointment upon his sacred body.
Not only the divine nature and person of Christ—which is always present to us by the presence of majesty—but also his sacred humanity, ineffably united to and subsisting in the divine Person, is to be pursued by all offices of piety; although we do not now see him with our eyes, by faith we understand, believe, and hold him present in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
But he is also present to us in the poor: in them he is refreshed, clothed, aided, received as a guest; in the sick he is visited; in captives he is ransomed. "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40).
But me you will not always have. We ought to fear lest we not always have Christ. The good and merciful will always have him; the wicked, the avaricious, those not compassionate to the needs of the poor nor doing good to them, will not always have him—for they are thieves, because as stewards and procurators of the Lord, whose goods they are, they do not dispense them according to his will and commandment.
"The poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have." If you are good, you have Christ both in the present and in the future: in the present through faith, through the sign of the cross, through the Sacrament of Baptism, through the food and drink of the Altar. You have Christ in the present, and you will always have him, because when you depart hence you will arrive at him and reign with him eternally.
But if you live wickedly, you seem to have Christ in the present—because you enter the Church, you sign yourself with the sign of Christ, you are baptized with the Baptism of Christ, you join yourself to the members of Christ, you approach the Altar of Christ—but if you persist in living wickedly, you will not always have him; you will be eternally separated from him. "But me you will not always have" (St. Augustine, Tractate 50 on John; Tractate 10 on John 12).
CONTINUE
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