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Honoring Mary of Magdala and her sisters in
faith
Women who anointed Jesus is excerpted here
from “Women in the Lectionary” by Sr. Christine
Schenk, csj of FutureChurch. The FutureChurch
website is a rich source of scholarship and user-friendly
materials.
One of the most consistent and ironic lectionary omissions
is one in which a woman takes the prophetic role of anointing
Jesus' head (Mt. 26:6-13). Even though he promises, "I
assure you, wherever the good news is proclaimed throughout
the world, what she did will be spoken of in memory of
her," most of us have never heard about the woman
who seemed to understand Jesus' Paschal mission best.
In Matthew's Palm Sunday passion account (Year A),
we see that even though the passage begins with the woman
anointing Jesus, the lectionary omits these verses (26:6-13).
The optional short version also concludes just before
the mention of the faithful women who had followed Jesus
to Jerusalem from Galilee. The Gospel reading for Wednesday
of Holy Week repeats the Palm Sunday reading, again excluding
the woman's anointing. The Palm Sunday passion reading
from Marks' gospel in Year B again makes the anointing
by a woman and the witness of women at the cross optional.
Lastly, John's account of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus
at a banquet served by Martha, is not included in the
reading of the passion on Good Friday but is only read
on a weekday ...Monday in Holy Week.
The anointing passages we do hear about are those in
which the woman is a penitent sinner who washes Jesus'
feet with her hair. Our daughters and sons hear about
this woman every year on Thursday of the 24th week in
OT and on the Eleventh Sunday in O T (Year C). They may
never hear about the prophetic woman who anointed Jesus'
head to strengthen him in preparation for his passion.
This reinforces the unfortunate notion that women and
sin are invariably linked How often do we hear about
Peter the repentant sinner even though he surely qualifies,
as would Matthew the tax collector and Paul the tentmaker?
- Another project under way is the Report
Card Project. It is part of the Quixote Center’s
program “Catholics Speak Out,” which
encourages reform in the Roman Catholic Church and
adult responsibility for faith. In particular, the
project works towards equality and justice within
the Church and dialogue between the laity and hierarchy
on issues of sexuality, sexual orientation and reproduction.
The Report Card Project will rate the U.S. bishops'
progress on meeting certain measurable benchmarks
to hold the bishops accountable for
their promise to find alternative ways for women
to exercise leadership in the Church. For more information, click
here.
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| For
an overview of press coverage of VOTF, click
here. |
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