God acts extravagantly, but in secret

That last of the seven sorrows of Mary: laying Jesus' body in the tomb.

Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus by night, came carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about 100 pounds.

Then, they took the body of Jesus and bound it with linen and with the spices.

This is the burial custom of the Jews.

There was in the place where he was buried a garden

and in the garden a new tomb, in which no-one had been placed.

There then, because it was the day of preparation of the Jews, and because the tomb was near,

they placed Jesus.

~~

He had come at night to see the Light of the World.  Nicodemus wanted to keep his interest in Jesus secret, so he went to see him at night to ask his questions about how to enter the kingdom of God.  Now the secret is out: a respected member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus can’t have been a young man and must have struggled to carry 100 pounds of ointment up a hill.  The sight must have seemed almost comic, almost pathetic as he tottered along struggling with this heavy load.  He certainly can’t have been moving quickly, covertly or even inconspicuously.  Everyone would now know that he was off to do something extravagant.

What caused this change in him?  We don’t know.  Some saints tell us about how God has acted to turn their lives around or others tell us for them: St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Paul.  But not Nicodemus.  And not most people I know.  I remember that before I went to the novitiate, Fr. Pat Neary told me, “The Novitiate is a very mysterious time.  You’ve had a good year at Moreau, but you’re not a religious yet.  If you come back after a year on the mountain, you’ll come back as a religious and I don’t really know how that happens, except that it has a lot to do with grace.”

In today’s reading Jesus is anointed for a royal burial by someone who first came at night to ask how to gain access to the Kingdom.  It’s the latest in a succession of things happening to Jesus: being crucified, being taken down from the cross, being passed around, being anointed, being placed in a tomb.  But at the heart of the Gospel, at the heart of the Passion, is God acting.  God often acts as secretly as Nicodemus’ first approach to Jesus.  God always acts as extravagantly as his last.  How did Nicodemus find his king?  We don’t know, except that it has a lot to do with grace.  How will that stone be rolled away?  How will we be made perfect in holiness?  We don’t know, except that it has a lot to do with grace.