Today's Gospel 6 April 2020 with comment

GOSPEL
Let her do so that she will keep it for the day of my burial.
+ From the Gospel according to John 12,1: 11-XNUMX
Six days before Easter, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. And here they made a dinner for him: Marta served and Làzzaro was one of the diners. Then Mary took three hundred grams of perfume of pure nard, very precious, sprinkled Jesus' feet on it, then dried them with her hair, and the whole house was filled with the aroma of that perfume. Then Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was about to betray him, said: «Why has this perfume not been sold for three hundred denarii and they have not given themselves to the poor?». He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and, because he kept the cash, he took what they put into it. Then Jesus said: «Let her do it, so that she will keep it for the day of my burial. In fact, you always have the poor with you, but you don't always have me ». Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews learned that he was there and rushed, not only for Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. The chief priests then decided to kill Lazarus too, because many Jews left because of him and believed in Jesus.
Word of the Lord.

HOMILY
We live the days immediately preceding the Passion of the Lord. John's gospel makes us live moments of intimacy and tenderness with Christ; it seems that Jesus wants to offer us, as a testament, further and more intense testimonies of love, friendship, warm welcome. Maria, the sister of Lazarus, answers the answer to her love for herself and for all of us. She is still prostrate at the feet of Jesus, in that attitude many times she had blessed herself with the words of the master to the point of arousing the holy envy of her sister Martha, all intent on preparing a good lunch for the divine guest. Now he not only listens, but feels that he must express his immense gratitude with a concrete gesture: Jesus is his Lord, his King and therefore he must anoint him with a precious and fragrant ointment. The prostration at his feet, is the gesture of humble subjection, is the gesture of a living faith in the resurrection, is the honor paid to the one who called his brother Lazarus among the living, already in the grave for four days. Mary expresses the gratitude of all believers, the thanks of all saved by Christ, the praise of all the resurrected, the love of all those in love with him, the best response to all the signs with which he has manifested to all of us the goodness of God. Judas' intervention is the most absurd and clumsy testimony: the expression of love for him becomes cold and icy calculation translated into numbers, three hundred denarii. Who knows if he will remember in a few days the value attributed to that jar of alabaster and if he will compare it with the thirty denarii for which he sold his master? For those who are attached to money and made it their own idol, love is truly worth zero and the person of Christ himself can be sold off for little money! It is the eternal contrast that often upsets the life of our poor world and its inhabitants: either the immeasurable, eternal riches of God that fill human existence or vile money, who enslaves and deludes. (Silvestrini Fathers)