Both Matthew and Mark begin their account of the
Passion with an incident that happened at a dinner given in Jesus ‘honour in
the house of Simon the leper. A woman
comes in with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil and pours the oil on the head of
Jesus. Some of those react indignantly:
‘Why this waste?’ they want to know. The
oil could have been sold ‘for more than three hundred denarii and the money
given to the poor’, some complain (Mark 14:5).
But Jesus defends her action.
Who is Simon the leper? Perhaps Jesus had cured him of his
leprosy. Maybe he is showing his
gratitude by giving this dinner in his honour.
Is Simon among those who protest at what the woman had done? Luke’s variation on the theme leaves us in no
doubt (Luke 7:36-50) Is there more of
Simon in us with his begrudging gratitude or of the woman, with her lavish
love?
Then there is Simon Peter. When Jesus tells his disciples that they will
all lose faith in him, Peter will have none of it. ‘Even though I should have to die with you, I
will not deny you.’ ‘Simon, Simon,’
Jesus says (Luke 22:31) ‘I have prayed for you.... that when once you have
turned back you may strengthen your brothers.’
When we fail – as we all do – do we promptly turn
back? How can we strengthen one
another? Do we allow ourselves to be
crushed by our failures? Pope Francis
reminds us again and again that God’s mercy is always greater than any sin and
no-one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive. We have this Jubilee Year of Mercy to help us
to grow in awareness of the Father’s mercy and Pope Francis assures us that
‘Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy.’
The third Simon that Matthew, Mark and Luke put
before us in their accounts of the Passion is the man from Cyrene who was
ordered by the Roman soldiers to assist the greatly weakened Jesus to carry his
cross. John wishes to emphasise the majesty of Jesus rather than his physical
weakness so he speaks of Jesus ‘carrying the cross by himself’.(19:17). Mark tells us that Simon was ‘a passer-by who
was coming in from the country’, presumably to take part in the great Jewish
feast of the Passover and mentions that he ‘was the father of Alexander and
Rufus (Mark 15:21). Alexander and Rufus
seem to have been prominent members of the church community for whom Mark was
writing his gospel. The inference is
that Simon of Cyrene, as a result of his encounter with the suffering Christ,
himself became a Christian. Perhaps we
will not realise in our lifetime how blessed we have been to have been called
upon to carry the crosses that come our way.
