{"id":5716,"date":"2019-04-23T22:26:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5716"},"modified":"2019-04-23T22:33:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:33:34","slug":"holy-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/holy-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Lead me to the Cross<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Holy Wednesday<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

by<\/em>\u00a0Kirollos Roman<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

On Holy Wednesday of Pascha week, we generally remember two characters. The character of Judas\u00a0Iscariot, and conversely, the character of the woman who poured the fragrant oil on the head of our\u00a0Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A stranger who pleased the Lord on the same the day His disciple\u00a0betrayed Him. This annual comparison never fails to ask us the question: who am I? Judas Iscariot,\u00a0who betrays Him. Or the woman who poured the fragrant oil.<\/p>\n

The story of the woman who poured the fragrant oil, as we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew\u00a026:1-13 and Saint Mark 14:3-9, is a story of silent love. She never spoke a single word. It appears\u00a0she chose not to, despite what she may have heard against her. Some said: \u201cwhy was this fragrant oil\u00a0wasted\u201d (Mark 14:4), while others, \u201ccriticized her sharply\u201d (Mark 14:5). This woman had so much to\u00a0say, but without words – silent love. This type of love, in the eyes of God, is much louder than any\u00a0love with words. There is a silent love that can be shown, more powerful than any word that can be\u00a0said. \u201cFor He will quiet you with His love\u201d<\/em> (Zephaniah 3). On the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, what\u00a0words were left to say? Christ spent years preaching and teaching. Performing thousands of miracles\u00a0and acts of compassion. But there came a time of silence – the Cross. On the Cross, He offered us His\u00a0undying love. A silent love. A love worth a thousand words never spoken. Precious in the eyes of the\u00a0Lord are those who love with more than words.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, fragrant oil is poured not only on the head of our Saviour, but His feet (John\u00a012:1-19). St Paul comments and says: \u201cAnd He (i.e. Christ) is the head of the body, the Church\u201d\u00a0(Colossians 4:18). Who then is the feet? The poor, sick and helpless. St Ambrosiaster says: \u201cBecause\u00a0our feet are low and in need of honor, we adorn them with shoes\u201d<\/em>. Thus, silent love is two fold – love\u00a0of the head, and love of the feet. Love of the head in our attendance of the daily Pascha. Love of the\u00a0head in our chanting of \u2018Thok Te-tee Gom\u2019. Love of the head in our persistent prayer, contemplation\u00a0and meditation. Love of the head in our tears of repentance. All of these, are moments of fragrant oil\u00a0on the head of Christ.<\/p>\n

What about the anointing of the feet? The feet that others questioned: \u201cWhy was this fragrant oil not\u00a0sold ?\u201d (John 12:5). The feet that were wiped with the head of her hair, a woman who couldn\u2019t bear to\u00a0look Him in the eye. Who are the feet of Christ? They are the forgotten. The weak. The hurt. Those\u00a0who don\u2019t appear as apparent as the head or the neck or the shoulders. These are the feet of Christ.\u00a0For what is lower than the feet? But be assured, the oil that anoints the feet is valuable in the eyes of\u00a0God. Jesus said, \u201cLet her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial\u201d<\/em> (John 12:7). When you\u00a0offer your love to those in need, be assured it has reached the head of Christ. Let me practice this\u00a0love in the final three days of the Pascha. What is something of value in my home that I can offer to\u00a0someone forgotten, weak or hurt? It must be valuable like \u201c an alabaster flask of very costly oil of\u00a0spikenard\u201d (Mark 14:3). And again, be assured, it is not a waste, for it will anoint the feet of Christ,\u00a0and please Christ Himself.<\/p>\n

Every year during the Holy Pascha, we\u2019re faced with the question: who am I? Judas Iscariot, who\u00a0betrays our Saviour; or the woman who poured the fragrant oil. Judas Iscariot, who sold Him for thirty\u00a0silver coins; or the woman who bought His love for three hundred denarii?<\/p>\n

In the first epistle to St Timothy, St Paul teaches his disciple: \u201ca bishop…must not be greedy for\u00a0money\u201d (1 Tim 3:3). Why is that? The truth is, if I hold anything in my life more precious than God,\u00a0this leaves me room to deny Him. Judas Iscariot loved money more than He did God, so he stole from\u00a0the church\u2019s money box. Jesus asks the rich young ruler: \u201cIf you want to be perfect, go, sell what you\u00a0have and give to the poor…and come, follow Me\u201d. But he could not deny his riches. So we read: \u201che\u00a0went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions\u201d (Matt 19:22). Again, the sons of Eli the priest were\u00a0greedy. They took portions from the burnt sacrifices for themselves, and so led the whole Kingdom of\u00a0Israel astray.<\/p>\n

What about me? Is my relationship with God based on possessions? Do I only pray to\u00a0Him when He gives me? Or when I want something. The church urges us to strive to be like Job on this day, even naming today, “Job Wednesday,” so that we are continually reminded of his faith on this day. \u00a0Job lost everything. His money.\u00a0But also his family. His livestock. His health. And after all this, he says: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (Job 1:21). Let me be like Job. On Holy\u00a0Wednesday, the Church reads the whole book of Job so that we imitate him and by extension, imitate Christ. Let us learn to hold our faith more precious than money and all other worldly\u00a0cares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lead me to the Cross Holy Wednesday by\u00a0Kirollos Roman On Holy Wednesday of Pascha week, we generally remember two characters. The character of Judas\u00a0Iscariot, and conversely, the character of the woman who poured the fragrant oil on the head of our\u00a0Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A stranger who pleased the Lord on the same the … Continue reading “Holy Wednesday”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[110,6,113,116],"class_list":["post-5716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-holy-week","tag-love","tag-pascha","tag-unconditional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5716"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5720,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716\/revisions\/5720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}