Hubby woke me up as I was talking in my dreams. I remembered praying “Our Father who art in heaven,” quite loudly that he woke me up. Yes, 30 days of being inside the house with short walks around the block and back and doing two to three essential errands is like having cabin fever. But, when I heard Fr. Parker Sandoval described it as a sacrament of charity towards others, I had renewed attitude to stay homebound.
Today’s homily by Fr. Joachim of Holy Family Artesia was quite exceptional, maybe because I am in that mode of reflection. He said, “Jesus saw Judas’ goodness before his betrayal of Jesus. Did he value his companionship with Jesus? In our community, what do we do to prevent others’ rise in spirituality? In what manner do we act like Judas? In loving Jesus, do we use our heart or our minds? What’s dearest in us that we give to Jesus?”
I was then blessed to watch Fr. James Martin’s 30 minute interaction on today’s gospel with folks. The gospel spoke of Mary’s anointing oil, the pungent aromatic nard, in Jesus’ feet and wiping it off with her hair. She lavished such abundance on Jesus that Judas questioned that act as unnecessary and the oil should have been sold for 300 days worth of wages. Sandra Schneider, an author, interpreted that as Judas controlling the form of discipleship of women, that of Mary and Jesus bluntly said to leave her alone. Jesus valued Mary’s initiative. Nard continues to be sold in Bethany.
“We are charged not with obliterating our diversity and difference but instead with heightening our connection to each other.”
Fr. Greg Boyle – Homeboy Industries
I then prepared our dinner of home grown lettuce, home grown avocados, applewood smoked bacon with Corina’s homemade challah bread and for lunch, spiked up korean spicy noodles with carrots, bokchoy and egg.
