I Think I’ll Stay
By: Andrea Beyke
Yesterday, many Christian Churches celebrated Palm (or
Passion) Sunday. I attended mass at St.
Mary’s Village with my friend Kelly and one of our RCIA candidates. Many other SMWC students were also in
attendance. Every year, I both dread and look forward to
this day. It seems very shallow of me,
even more so now that I’m actually writing it for others to read, but I recall
that in the Catholic Church, the Gospel reading on Palm Sunday is crazy
long. And it’s a depressing story,
really. This Messiah that was supposed
to liberate the People of God from the government and from sin is killed…at the
hands of the government. It seems they’ve
won. And sin prevailed.
With these negative thoughts in the back of my head, Sister
Joan asked us to be seated for the Gospel (since it was crazy long). So it began.
Wait, WHAT?! We’re
reading the EXPANDED version! This means
we began reading from the Gospel of Mark at the plot to kill Jesus and the
anointing at Bethany (Mark 14:1-9). I
typically don’t hear this part because so many churches choose to read only the
shortened version…probably because of cranky parishioners like me. But, I settled in, willing myself to have patience. Here’s where my attitude changed.
An unnamed woman anointed Jesus’ feet with a very costly
ointment of nard. The insightful woman
seemed to understand Jesus' imminent passion the best. While her brothers
accused her of wasting expensive ointment, she evoked Samuel's prophetic
anointing of David as king in Israel. Her symbolic ritual must have been very reassuring
to Jesus, who was facing a horrific death before entering his own kingdom. She was intelligent. She was compassionate. And Jesus recognized that. He said, “Truly I tell you, wherever the good
news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in
remembrance of her.” (Mark 14:9)
In remembrance of HER.
Do we remember her? This woman
whom we cannot even name? Come to think
of it, do we remember any of the women from the Passion? As the Gospel continued, I paid special
attention to the women in the Story.
There was a servant-girl who questioned Peter about his
connection with Jesus – leading to Peter’s second denial. (Mark 14:68) A small
part, but pivotal to the telling of this story.
She reminded us of our human dimension.
We all have the tendency to protect ourselves.
Then, finally, after Jesus breathed his last, Mark’s Gospel
reads, “There were women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and
Salome. These used to follow him when he
was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to
Jerusalem.” (Mark 15:40-41) After the
body was buried, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the
body was laid.” (Mark 15:47)
The women stayed.
Often during Holy Week, we hear it preached, “Jesus was abandoned by
everyone.” Everyone? Everyone,
that is, but the women, whose presence must have meant so much Jesus, if to
no one else. The women stayed.
Some say that the men could have been arrested and
prosecuted for staying, so they left to protect themselves. But, wouldn’t that
same law also apply to women?
Sister Christine Schenk, CSJ writes about this, “I used to
think the women stayed because it was less politically risky for them compared
to their brothers who fled to Galilee. Not so. Turns out that the Romans had no
compunction about crucifying women and even children to terrorize subjugated
people.”
The courage! The
love! The compassion! When I bear in mind these women, I can’t
believe that I’d never considered the Story from their point of view
before. They risked their lives to be there
for someone they’d come to love. They
cared for the body of their teacher and friend when very few others would. They showed the world that their presence was
sacred.
Let us remember these women.
Actually, let us do more than remember these women. Let us emulate them. How can I stay with the afflicted? How can I soothe the troubled? How can I walk with Jesus? How can I experience Holy Week through the
eyes of these women?
Here’s how: like the
women on Calvary, I’ll stay. I’ll stay
and stand for what I believe...even if everyone else leaves. I’ll wait it through until the end…even when the
situation gets uncomfortable. I’ll
experience the pain and the grief…even when others take the easy way out. And, I will continue to hope. I will have hope always, because I know how
the Story ends. I know what we celebrate
next Sunday. So, in a very different
way, I looked forward to Palm Sunday because I know that the Gospel doesn’t end
with Jesus’ death.
I think I’ll stay and wait with my sisters for the glorious
ending. I think I’ll stay.
I enjoyed reading this and think it was beautifully written.
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