Text: John 12:1-8

I have visited the North West Territories only once, in the fall of 1967, when the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus toured to six communities in Northern Alberta and the N.W.T. as our Canada Centennial project. The place where we turned around and headed home was Fort Smith, where the Slave River crosses the 60th parallel.

Fort Smith is a very old community, the site of an important portage from before fur trading days. Like most northern towns, it has a large aboriginal population, many of whom then lived in sub-standard conditions. The town is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese, which had completed a new cathedral only a few years before our choir’s visit.

In 1967, that cathedral sat in lordly splendour on the southern edge of the town, dominating a largely Dene neighbourhood. For me, there was a disquieting contrast between the shiny new church and the ramshackle homes in its shadow—surely the money could have better spent improving the living situations of the people. When I expressed these feelings to some friends, one girl told me that they had to build the Cathedral, because it gave glory to God, and it was something beautiful for the people to use and to look to every day.

I hear this conversation again every time I read today’s Gospel. Having a come a long way in my own spiritual journey, I doubt that I would be quite so quick to condemn the church builders today—but I am if anything even more conscious of the spiritual issue raised here.

Judas rebuked Mary for wasting a valuable resource that might have done some good for people. 300 denarii was a lot of money—a full year’s wages, enough to feed many families for some time. But what had Mary done? And why did she do it?

Mary’s act must be seen as one of total devotion to Jesus. He was the one who told her sister “I am the resurrection and the life,” the one who had restored her brother to life.

There are at least three reasons for this understanding:

1.      The value of the ointment. The fact that Martha served suggests that the household had no servants—they were ordinary people, for whom this outlay was significant.

2.      Anointing of the feet would ordinarily be done by the individual or by a slave—never by a host. Mary’s act puts her in the position of Jesus’ slave, whose life is totally dependent on him.

3.      Well-groomed hair was a mark of dignity. Deliberately fouling it with oil and the dust from another’s feet demeaned the individual.

What Mary did was a remarkable act of devotion to her Master. Why she did it is the heart of the issue for us today. We live in a very practical age, when most people like to see tangible results for an outlay of money. When this church was built (fifty years before it was designated a Cathedral) the City of Brandon had a population of about 16,000. Erecting a structure that looked like a Cathedral in a relatively small community was an act of devotion and piety that we might not be so willing to replicate today.

I am reminded daily of the needs of this community, which has a considerable poverty problem, closely related to race, as it was in Fort Smith forty years ago. I can hear myself echoing my outburst, sounding just like Judas.

However…

Can we really fault Judas? We tend to read a lot into his words, because our tradition has labeled him a villain, but are his sentiments here so bad?

Jesus’ reply to Judas must be read in the light of the Jewish Law. I have heard his words taken out of context by politicians, seeking to justify not helping the poor. “You will always have the poor with you, so why bother helping them?” was the gist of the argument by one Alberta cabinet minister a few years ago.

But we read in Deuteronomy 15:11:

Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

There is always time to help the poor, who will always be with us, but there was only one time for Mary to express her devotion to Jesus. Her resources were limited, and she chose to use them in this way. Our resources are limited, and we continually find ourselves facing the same kind of choice.

The builders of this church seized the moment, erecting a church which has stood on this site for 95 years, a visible symbol of the founders’ faith, and an expression of God’s unceasing love for all his people.

Mary seized the moment, pouring out her love on her Master. There will time and enough to do good in the world—and God will provide the means for us to do that. But when the moment arrives to express our love for Jesus, let us seize the moment. Let us “build our Cathedrals” when we can, but let us never forget that life goes on, and the world has needs, and we still have God’s command to help all in need as we are able.

Our resources are limited, and we sometimes have to choose between “two goods.” God’s resources are unlimited, bounded only by our finite ability to mobilize them. God will provide—for the Cathedrals of this world, and for the poor who live in their shadows.

Thanks be to God!