The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Chapter 12
Ver. 1. — Then Jesus six days before the Passover , &c. He came from Ephraim, as the Passover was drawing on when He was to die. And He came to Bethany to prepare Himself for it; nay more, to offer Himself for death, and furnish an opportunity for it through the covetousness of Judas. This explains why He first went to Bethany. For the chief priests had ordered that He should be seized. And He, knowing this by divine inspiration, came to Bethany, where He had many well-wishers, among whom He could remain in security, and might thence shortly afterwards enter Jerusalem in solemn pomp on Palm Sunday, as the Paschal Lamb who was to be offered for the sins of the world.
Bethany, which is close to Mount Olivet, signifies in Hebrew the house of obedience. From this place He wished to go to His Cross. For as the Gloss says, By being obedient even as far as to the death of the Cross, He taught His Church obedience, on the Mount of Oil, i.e., the Mount of Mercy, which cannot be hid, and He raises up those who are buried in grievous sins. A supper is there made by the faith and devotion of the righteous. Martha ministers, when each of the faithful offers to the Lord works of devotion, and Lazarus, i.e., those who have been raised up (from sin), with those who have remained stedfast in their righteousness, joyfully feast on the Lord’s presence.
Six days before the Passover . It was on the Friday evening that He came from Ephraim. On the following Sabbath they made Him a feast, and on the next day (Palm Sunday) He in solemn manner entered Jerusalem. For the Passover that year fell on the Thursday of that week. He came to Bethany on the Friday, because it was not lawful to journey on the Sabbath.
Symbolically , The Gloss says, “ God made all things in six days. On the sixth He made man ; in the sixth age of the world He willed to redeem him. He suffered on the sixth day of the week, and died at the sixth hour.”
Whom Jesus raised from the dead. That by His presence He might revive the memory of this miracle, and arouse the people to attend Him on His solemn entry into Jerusalem, and shout Hosanna.
Ver. 2. — There they made Him a supper , &c. To show that He had really risen ; as S. Augustine says (in loc.) “ He lived, He talked, He partook of the meal : the truth was set forth, the unbelief of the Jews was confounded.”
Ver. 3. — Mary (Magdalene) therefore (that she might not be wanting on her part, and in order specially to honour Christ, and to surpass all others in her services, as she surpassed them in love) took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly . Ointment of nard was composed of several sweet scents (see Pliny H. N. xiii. 2), and was thick. But this was liquid, as S. Matt. (xxvi. 7) says that it was poured on His head. Liquids are very often weighed in vessels, or anyhow the nard itself from which the ointment was made. Or this pound was rather a measure of quantity, not of weight.
Mystically. S. Augustine says, “ The ointment was righteousness. Therefore it was of due weight” (libra). The Gloss says, “Mary before anointed His feet as a penitent ; but now, when the righteousness of the perfect, and not the mere rudiments of penitence, are designated, she anoints His head and His feet. The pound of ointment is the perfection of righteousness. He anoints the head, who preaches high doctrines respecting Christ ; He anoints the feet who respects the least commandments.”
But what is “pistic nard”? (1.) The Commentary on S.
Matthew (in S. Jerome) says “mystic,” which is absurd. (2.) S. Augustine says it is so called from the place whence it was brought. But the place itself is uncertain. (3.) Maldonatus derives it ἀπὸ τοῦ πίνειν, meaning that it was liquid, and so could be drunk, other ointments being thick and clotted. (4.) Others derive it from squeezed or pressed out. (5.) As if from wlurig, pure, unadulterated, as nard frequently was. (See Pliny H. N. xii. 13.) So Euthymius, Theophylact, on Mark xii., Baronius, Ribera, Jansenius , Toletus and others. (6.) Pistici is the same as spicati by a change of letters. This was the best kind of ointment. (This point treated at very great length.)
Morally. Here learn that the good works, with which we anoint
Christ, ought to be quite free from fault, and of the very best kind.
Compare the offerings of Cain and Abel. (See Ps. lxvi., xx. 4, and
Dan. iii. 40 (Vulg.), Lev. iii. 16, Num. xviii. 17, 29, and Lev.
And anointed the feet of Jesus. S. Matt, adds “ and the head.” Alcuin explains mystically, “The Head is the loftiness of the Godhead , the feet the humility of the Incarnation. Or the Head is Christ, the feet the poor who are His members. We anoint them when we give them alms.”
And wiped His feet with her hair. A hysteron proteron. For first she wiped, and then anointed His feet. For had she anointed His feet first, and then wiped them with her hair, she would have anointed her own hair, (which she did not wish to do,) and which indeed she counted unworthy of such anointing, and not His feet. Moreover, this sweet-scented and precious ointment was not to be wiped off, but left on His feet, to give them ease.
Her hair. To soil those hairs, of which she used to be vain, with the dust of His feet, and also that she might with the deepest reverence and humility place her whole head beneath His feet. For S. Chrysostom says, she placed the noblest part of her body beneath His feet, and she approached Him not as man but as God.
And the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. S. Augustine says, mystically, the whole world was filled with the good fame of her piety and virtue. As S. Paul says, “ We are a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Cor. ii. 14) — to the good, of life unto life; to the wicked, of death unto death — as was here the case. Whence it follows :
Ver. 4. — Then said one of His disciples , Judas Iscariot , (5.) Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence , and given to the poor ? SS. Matt, and Mark add, “ Why was this waste of the ointment made ? ” Bede replies, “ It was no waste, but for the rite of burial ; nor is it wonderful that she offered Me the sweet savour of Faith, when I am about to shed my blood for her.”
Ver. 6. — This he said , &c. Nay worse, sacrilegious, “for he seized for his own use, that which was given for a sacred purpose,” says Theophylact. “ He carried the money by his office, he carried it ,” says S. Augustine. He wished the ointment to be sold, and the price of it given to him ; and since he knew that Christ did not wish so large a sum to be kept in his purse, but rather to be distributed amongst the poor, he would have distributed some of it to the poor, and have purloined the rest for himself. See here how opportunity makes the thief, and how dangerous it is for holy men in “religion” to handle moneys, those especially which belong to the whole community. For if covetousness suggests it, a portion is easily diverted to the use of themselves or their families.
But why did Jesus entrust to him the bag, knowing him to be a thief? I answer, Because Judas was more qualified than the other Apostles to make purchases. And He allowed the theft, because an opportunity was furnished thereby for the betrayal and death which He courted. Again S. Augustine, “ Because the Church would afterwards have its coffers, He admitted thieves, in order that
His Church might tolerate powerful thieves, even when suffering from them, to teach us that the wicked must be tolerated, for fear of dividing the body of Christ. Do thou, the good, bear with the evil, that thou mayest attain to the reward of the good.” S. Chrysostom adds, “The Lord committed the bags to a thief; in order to cut off any excuse for betraying Him, and that it might not seem as if he betrayed Him from want of money.” But Theophylact says, “ Some maintain that as the least of the Apostles he undertook the management of the money.”
Lastly, S. Bernard (de Consid. iv. 6) teaches us “that Christ wished in ‘ this ’ way to teach Prelates readily to entrust the management of temporal affairs to any one, but to reserve the ordering of spiritual matters to themselves : though many do exactly the contrary .” Again, Christ acted thus, to keep us from being surprised, if in the assemblies, monasteries, and congregations of holy men, there be occasionally found some vicious and scandalous persons ; and accordingly S. Augustine (Epist. 137, nunc 75), when one of his monks had caused scandal, at which the people cried out against him, prudently replied, “ However vigilant may be the discipline of my house, I am but a man, I am living among men : nor do I dare to claim for myself, that my house should be better than Noah’s ark, where among eight men one was found reprobate, or better than the house of Abraham, when it was said, Cast out the bondwoman and her son ; or better than the house of Isaac, to whom it was said respecting the twin children, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated : or better than the house of Jacob, when his son defiled his father’s bed ; or better than the house of David, whose son lay with his sister, and where another son rebelled against his holy and gentle father; or better than they who were associated with the Lord Christ Himself, where eleven righteous men tolerated Judas, that perfidious thief; or, lastly, better than heaven from which the angels fell.”
Doubtless God permits it in His wise providence, in order that by the wickedness of one or two the goodness and sanctity of others may shine out the more by way of contrast, as light amid darkness, gold amongst lead, the sun between the clouds, a wise man among fools, shines forth only the more resplendently. For contraries opposed to each other are the more marked. (See Ecclus . xxxiii. 15, and notes in loc.)