“Leave her alone; she has kept this for the day of my burial.” Jn. 12:1-11.

In Bethany, on the eve of Easter, Jesus is welcomed into a friendly house. There, Mary anoints his feet with an expensive perfume. The gesture is gratuitous, overflowing, born of grateful love. Mary does not calculate, she loves, and in loving she recognizes the life-giving presence of God.

Faced with this gesture, Judas emerges with a different logic: that of calculation, utility, the appearance of concern for the poor. Jesus unmasks those remarks and defends Mary: There are moments when love is not measured because it anticipates the total gift that He himself will make on the cross. We, where do we act from?   From the gratuitousness of love or from interest and convenience? Mary teaches us that true faith is expressed in concrete gestures, capable of  “perfuming” the lives of others.