Monday, April 6, 2020

Repost: Mary Magdalene's Perfume Bottle


Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. For the poor you have always with you; but me you have not always.
I wanted to repost this drawing I did last year of this scene from today's gospel, and focus on Judas. I am very much pleased with my choice to portray him clad as a modern cardinal bishop, (he was indeed a bishop, you know) with a certain pectoral cross.

Catholics can disagree in good faith about the prudence of barring the laity from attendance at Mass during this time. But for those bishops who are forbidding confessions and baptisms, even in danger of death... there is no other possible explanation but malice. They are the successors of Judas.