You Always Have The Poor With You

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor? (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep if for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." (John 12:3-8)

I am curious about what Jesus means when he says we always have the poor with us. What do you think?

I also cannot help but relate the parenthetical note on Judas keeping the common purse and stealing from it to some aspects of Congressional practices today. The members of Congress have developed the practice of budget earmarks by which individual members of Congress are allowed to pick specific projects and specific recipients to receive federal monies. The practice has even developed where a member of Congress designates specific funds to a specific recipient or a specific project and that designation or assignment of funds is not even specifically written down in the bill that Congress votes on. There is more, members of Congress often make such personal budget earmarks without even being identified as the member of Congress making the earmark. Do you see any parallels in the ethics of Judas and the ethics of earmarks?