March 30, 2026
Monday of Holy Week
Gospel: John 12:1-11

Today is Monday of Holy Week. The Gospel passage from Saint John presents to us the narrative of Jesus sharing a meal in Bethany with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

Saint John tells us that Martha, as was her custom, served Jesus to the best of her ability (cf. Jn 12:1). Lazarus reclined quietly at the table with Jesus (cf. Jn 12:2). Mary offered Jesus the finest expression of devotion she could give she anointed His feet with a very costly ointment and dried them with her hair (cf. Jn 12:3). He wants to tell us that this was a family in harmonious relationship with Jesus.

Yet in this harmonious scene, a discordant voice arose. Saint John informs us that Judas Iscariot—the one who would betray Jesus—said to Him, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” (cf. Jn 12:5). Such voices also persist within Christian communities. As materialism, pragmatism, and consumerism gradually take hold, people grow increasingly focused on earthly values. Consequently, they are unwilling to follow the example of Martha and Mary by offering all they possess to God. Their hearts are often captivated by the world’s money, power, and status before others—captivations that divert our gaze from Christ to this passing world here and now.

Dear brothers and sisters! We must always live with a sense of urgency and maintain an awareness of crisis in our minds, for there will come a day when we lose the time we have with our loving Lord Jesus Christ. If our thoughts and actions are fully aligned with all that Christ has taught us, and if we conduct ourselves entirely in imitation of Him, then no change in this changing world will affect our communion with Christ. But if our hearts remain hardened, refusing to repent of our sins or to live out God’s will through our own actions as Christ taught, then when our earthly life ends and we stand before the throne of God’s justice, we will enter into eternal perdition because of all we have done. Like Judas, we will be cast into the darkness filled with wailing and gnashing of teeth.

In this Holy Week, let us lift up our prayer to God together:

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, though in our weakness we fail, we may be revived through the Passion of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica