MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #419

There came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it had indignation, saying: "To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much and given to the poor." And Jesus knowing it, said to them: "Why do you trouble this woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. For she in pouring this ointment on my body hath done it for my burial. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memory of her." (Matt. 26:7-13)

CARE FOR GOD'S HONOR, AND CARE FOR THE POOR: Mary's example teaches us that we should not economize when it is a question of the worship of God, and the building or beautifying of His churches. The praise bestowed on her by our Lord shows that such offerings in His honor are well pleasing to Him, if they are made in a spirit of love and reverence. There will always be men who, like Judas, will blame such generosity in God's honor, and call it a needless extravagance, saying that the money would be far more usefully spent were it given to the poor--and yet such men as these care little or nothing for the poor. Christianity teaches that we ought to do the one, but not leave the other undone.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)