Today’s Gospel account relays this impressive scene (John 12:1-11):
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany … They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served … 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.”
True to form, Martha was busy about many things. In contrast, Mary paid attention only to Jesus. It did not seem extravagant to her to pour over Him a whole vase of precious perfume. Her generous action was a self-offering of devotion and love to our blessed Lord.
Mary shows us the soul in love with God, the soul who gives herself entirely to Him. She represents the souls who concentrate themselves more wholeheartedly to the immediate service of God and to devote themselves to a life of deeper friendship with Him.
Those failing to understand deem such action wasteful.
If everything we have and all that we are is God’s gracious gift, can it be a waste to offer our lives to Him and also seeking through our sincere self-offering to God to help repair the indifference of countless other souls who give nary a thought about Him?
