Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
What motivated Mary to make this costly and extravagant gift to Jesus? What could it have been if not love? This was not something that everyone understood. Mary's time with Jesus, sitting at his feet and listening to his words had caused her affection to grow. And it grew to the degree that it was as if she didn't need anyone to tell her that the hour of the Passion would soon but upon them and that the death of Jesus was at hand. It was as though her love of Jesus gave her the intuition that now was the time for an act such as this, one which Jesus received as "for the day of my burial".
How do we react when we see this extravagant love lavished upon the Lord? Do we celebrate, inhaling deeply the fragrance that filled the house, redounding to the enjoyment of all within? Or do we instead complain about how impractical such an offering was, how much better used the time and resources might have been?
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages
and given to the poor?"
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
Perhaps like Judas we respond from our own greediness, thinking not about the poor, but about what we ourselves might have selfishly done with the gift. Or perhaps we are simply jealous that Mary felt so deeply an affection which we do not seem to share. After all, when have we been moved to make such an generous gift to Jesus that served no purpose except to show our love for him? We feel, perhaps, a bit hollow that our own love for Jesus does not seem to move us in the same way that Mary was moved by her love for him. We witness Mary drying the feet of Jesus with her hair, and, if we feel anything at all, it may well be revulsion. But Mary herself must have unlocked this level of intimacy with Jesus precisely by sitting at those feet whenever the opportunity allowed. She lived her life from this posture of humility and love, making what she did the logical culmination of what had gone before.
Holy Week is above all a time to draw near to Jesus, to sit at his feet and to lavish upon him such acts of love as we can manage. We are meant to allow our affection for Jesus to be a genuine motivation, to not hide from it, or be embarrassed by it. It is in fact Jesus himself that is the one who ultimately draws this love from hearts such as ours which, at best, do not love readily or with ease. And the result is not negligible, not merely a nice symbolic approximation of our relationship. It becomes a genuine offering, even a participation in the one offering of Jesus himself on the cross.
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (see Ephesians 5:2).
Just as Christ's offering was a fragrant aroma before God so too do our own gifts become pleasing when they are given through him, out of our union with him.
I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God (see Philippians 4:18).
Our Lord is gentle in the way that he works in our hearts, not "crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street". He is ever a perfect gentlemen, not forcing anything, not breaking even a bruised reed, not quenching even a wick that is smoldering. It might seem that all of this gentleness was opposed to justice, just as Judas seemed to suggest. But the chosen of the Lord, Jesus himself, chose the way of love to bring forth justice. And it was because he walked the path of self-surrender that the victory of justice was gained for the world and permanently assured in the new and eternal covenant. Perhaps this gentleness and self-surrender can elicit from us our own response, our own fragrant offering to help fill the house and the world. It can if we let it, if we are attentive, as Mary was to the gift of love that we first received.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
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