Courageous Action, Commitment to Justice

(Note: Today’s guest blogger is Peter Veitch, OSB. Peter is a member of the Spiritus community, an artist, a retired RCSD school teacher, devoted spiritual seeker and member of the Benedictine order. We’re fortunate to have him lend his vision and reflections again today.)

In today’s Gospel, Mary of Bethany quietly anoints the feet of Jesus as Judas objects and Jesus admonishes him. Much has been written about their interaction, and who this woman may have been historically. I prefer to stand back and take this scene at face value.

As the men argue, Mary humbly takes action. She just carries on doing the right thing in this moment. Mary’s action, her anointing, places the events of the evening within a context of ritual, of finality, something sacred is happening, and she’s setting things in motion.

In John 2: 1-12, The Wedding at Cana, another Mary, the mother of Jesus, sets things moving, even ignoring the protests of Jesus himself. After listening to Jesus’ brief rant, she just looks at the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” It’s almost comical, she has no intention of taking no for an answer. I can picture Anne Bancroft playing her here, completely self- possessed, a woman about her business. It’s sort of interesting that women often succeed in getting things moving in the right direction, despite the men surrounding them.

Last Friday, Trans Day of Visibility, thousands of Catholic nuns released a letter voicing support for transgender, non-binary and gender expansive individuals declaring ‘they are beloved and cherished by God’, implicitly rebuking recent statements from the US Catholic hierarchy.

In 2010 when US bishops came out against the Affordable Care Act, Catholic nuns vehemently supported ACA, helping it to pass and prompting Speaker Nancy Pelosi to say what many of us were thinking, “Thank God for the nuns.” As punishment for their activism Pope Benedict XVI initiated a Vatican investigation of US Catholic women’s religious orders that Pope Francis canceled in 2015.

On Easter we’ll hear the Gospel story of Mary of Magdala’s discovery of the empty tomb. James Martin SJ has eloquently stated: “Between the time Mary Magdalene met the risen Christ at Easter and when she announced his resurrection to the disciples, Mary Magdalene was the church on earth, for only to her had been
revealed the Paschal Mystery. Any discussion of women in the church begins with this.”

From the three Marys of first century Palestine to the Catholic sisters and ordained women of our time, let us be grateful for their courageous actions and commitment to justice throughout the centuries.