Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.( Jn 12:1-2).
God is good all the time.
When he encouraged his flocks to set the cross of Christ before their eyes so that they can prioritize the Lord's Paschal Mystery, Saint Augustine told them:
Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory.
It is a great thing to see how the respectful event in today’s gospel set the stage for the Paschal Mystery and foreshowed the holy event of the Triduum when Jesus would dine with the disciples, die, and resurrect to give all believers "the right to become children of God."
John’s mention of this dinner event, which took place six days before the Passover in the house of Lazarus's sisters, Mary, and Martha, not only reckons it as a Holy Week event, but it also emphasizes the “fullness of life” that the Paschal Mystery of Christ brings to all believers in his mention of Lazarus, who Jesus had earlier raised from the dead, and Mary's anticipated anointing of Jesus' body for burial. For if we believe that we shall sit with Christ after our resurrection from the death, then the presence of Lazarus at the dinner table gives us a glimpse for us.
This belief that the Paschal Mystery gives us absolute life to the fullest with God should encourage us to always honor the Holy Week of Christ's death and resurrection and celebrate it each Sunday with a sense of holy obligation, and not in fear, but in true joy.
And if we know that in the sight of Christ's victory over death, our fear and doubt vanish, and hope emerges triumphantly, then let us come to honor and celebrate Holy Week as our arising from the death of fear and hopelessness that the COVID-19 pandemic stoked in us last year nibbed the Easter bud and left us without it. For Christ's death does offer us victory over life and death and human struggles and challenges as well.