She breaks the jar – a wasteful act, but one signifying how
deeply she loves Jesus and how much she wants this giving to be a singular
thing. Then she pours the perfume on him
and its aroma permeates the room.
Finally, she cries and her tears wash Jesus’ feet and she dries his feet
with her hair.
The evangelists say that people in the room began to grow
uncomfortable […]. What [made] those
present uncomfortable was something that also makes us uneasy – raw gift;
lavish, gratuitous affection. [Yet]
Jesus tells his hosts that this woman [has] just helped ready him for
death… Jesus’ challenge here is for us
to anoint each other while we are still alive:
Shower those you love with affection and flowers while they are alive, not
at their funerals.
What is church?
Church, ultimately, whether we do it in a church building or around our
kitchen tables, is about people getting together for no reason other than to
take the ointment, that is, to offer each other love and affection, to bask in
the perfume and the hair. […] We go to church so as not to be alone – alone in
our joys, alone in our sufferings, alone in the everydayness of our lives… We
go to church for the ointment.
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, The
Holy Longing (pp.132-134)
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