Daily Lesson for August 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark chapter 14 verses 3 through 10:

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.

Yesterday I got into a discussion with some friends about the differences between charity and justice, prompted by a book one of us was reading that called into question whether much of the work the church does is of any real use or whether it's just a sort of pablum that makes do-gooders feel even gooder, but doesn't really do anything to solve the actual issues.

As we were talking I remembered some of the criticism that was levied against Mother Teresa for her having cared much for the dying poor in the streets of Calcutta, but not having done much to change the actual situation. It was a criticism with some truth in it I knew, yet still it didn't quite sit right.

Now Jesus' words, spoken about another woman who was criticized for what she did for him just before his own death, come with moral clarity and force: "She has done what she could."

Mother Teresa herself said, "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."  The woman who anointed Jesus did not change the fact that Jesus was going to die, but she did what she could; she brought dignity to his death with her small act of great love.

And for that, Jesus said, she was to be remembered -- and not criticized.