Doers of the Word
Monday of Holy Week
“Leave her alone”
Let people express gratitude, affection, worship, even if their expression seems outrageous, wild, a waste of money. Why? They need to know that they did something for Jesus.
Three spiritual writers who expressed this in their own way: St. Teresa, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he must look out with compassion on the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless all others now.”
Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, bishop of Sao Felix de Arguaia, Brazil: “Plant your pilgrim footprints like kisses of fiery / solidarity upon the flesh of mother Earth. / Fix your eyes, warm with the sunsets, like oil-lamps / crouching in the universal vigil of time. / Cardinals of Rome, / still my brothers: / What are we / if we are not a living Passover? / What do we celebrate / if we do not celebrate all the world’s blood in each Mass? / Take not from me the martyrs’ blood / brimming the chalice that nourishes my courage. / If you remove the supreme blood witness, / what will be left for the poor of the South? / Cursed be the cross that decorates the wall of an oppressor’s bank, / or that presides behind an unfeeling throne, within a coat-of-arms, / above an enticing cleavage, before the eyes of fear. / Cursed be the cross thrust by the mighty on the poor, / in the name of God, perhaps. / Cursed be the cross that the Church justifies / – in the name of Christ, perhaps – / instead of burning in the flames of prophecy. / Cursed be the cross that cannot be the Cross. / Make sure that grace and tenderness fill with new wine your earthen vessel.”
St. Bridget of Ireland: “I should like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. / I should like the angels of Heaven to be drinking it through time eternal. / I should like excellent meats of belief and pure piety. / I should like flails of penance at my house. / I should like the men of Heaven at my house; / I should like barrels of peace at their disposal; / I should like vessels of charity for distribution; / I should like cheerfulness to be in their drinking. / I should like Jesus to be there among them. / I should like the three Mary’s of illustrious renown to be with us. / I should like the people of heaven, the poor, to be gathered around us from all parts.”