The Mystery of Christ
The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience

by Father Thomas Keating

Chapter 2 Part VI

The Easter-Ascension Mystery

The Anointing at Bethany

   Six days before the Passover Jesus was in the home of Simon the leper at Bethany. While he reclined at table, a woman with an alabaster flask of pure and very costly nard perfume entered the room. She broke the alabaster flask and emptied it over his head.
    Now some were indignant, saying to one another: "What good is the waste of this perfume: Why, this perfume could have been sold for upwards of three-hundred denarii and the money given to the poor!" So they gave way to bitter feelings toward her.
    But Jesus said, "Let her have her way. Why do you molest her? She has given beautiful expression of her devotion to me. After all, you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. She did what she could: by anointing my body, she prepared it for burial just in time! I assure you, wherever the Gospel is preached, in any part of the world, what this woman has done will likewise be proclaimed to perpetuate her memory."
[Mark 14:3 - 9]
Gospel for Monday of Holy Week

    This Gospel must be of great importance. Wherever the good news is preached, this event is to be repeated, so that everyone will know of this woman's devotion to Jesus. She is identified in John's Gospel as Mary of Bethany. John records the setting of this event in the following words: "Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany." The home of Lazarus Martha and Mary was a favorite stopping-off place for Jesus on his trips to Jerusalem.

    Mary of Bethany is one of the few persons in the gospel who are clearly delineated. As we saw in the last chapter, she was a contemplative. She is depicted as sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him--the principal practice of contemplative prayer. The Gospel says she was listening to his word, not his words. She was not following his teaching at this point. She was listening to him, that is, to the Speaker. She was identifying with the divine Person of the Word beyond his human words. She was moving to deeper levels of identification with him, beyond thinking, feeling and particular acts. She magnificently exemplifies what contemplative prayer is: the interiorization of the person of Jesus Christ, not just his words and teaching.

    Evidently this meant a lot to Jesus because he would not allow her to be disturbed by her sister's importunities. Few people have ever been defended in this manner by divine Wisdom itself. It was in answer to her prayer that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead a few days before.

    The dinner at Bethany was given in honor of Jesus six days before his passion and death. The Jewish authorities were now plotting vigorously for his destruction. Judas had already decided to betray him into the hands of his enemies. Simon the leper was the host at the dinner. Martha was fulfilling her customary role as perfect hostess, and Lazarus was one of the guests at table. It was an interesting group of people: Jesus the Messiah, Mary the contemplative, Martha the activist, Simon the leper, Judas the thief, and Lazarus the corpse--a fairly motley crew--what we might call a typical Sunday congregation. Jesus does not always choose the most respectable people to be his guests.

    Everyone was reclining at table except Mary. When she walked in, all eyes turned toward her. Everybody knew she had a deep love for Jesus. She was carrying an alabaster jar in which there was a pound of nard perfume. A pound of nard perfume was extremely expensive. Later we learn that it was worth three-hundred denarii, an amount that represented the ordinary workingman's wages for an entire year.

    She entered the room carrying the alabaster jar filled to the brim with the precious nard perfume and came to where Jesus was reclining. Suddenly, without a word, she smashed the bottle and poured the entire contents over his head. Out poured a pound of the incredibly costly perfume. The delicious odor billowed forth, filling the whole house with its fragrance. John adds that Mary also anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair.

    The guests were flabbergasted. No one had ever done anything like this. Was the woman crazy? Gradually, the disciples regained their  composure and started grumbling. They said to one another, "Why wasn't this costly perfume sold and the proceeds given to the poor? What a waste!"

    John identifies Judas as the ringleader of these remarks and comments sardonically, "It was not because he loved the poor that he said this, but because he was a thief and used to take what was put in the common purse and put it in his own pocket." The other disciples, however, also gave way to bitter feelings against her.

    Jesus then intervened with the words, "Let her have her way." He was dripping with perfume from head to foot, saturated with the stuff, a whole pound of it!

    When a well-to-do lady is invited to an important dinner and wants to put her best foot forward, she may dab a little perfume on her hair. But how much would she use? Probably just a tiny bit. What would she think if her husband came in and said, "Darling, I want you to smell nice," and poured a pound of the most expensive perfume on the market over her head?

    The house was now filled with a dense cloud of delicious perfume billowing through every room. The scent was overpowering. The disciples continued to complain. Nobody could eat; the meal had come to an end. Mary's astonishing action had completely shattered the festive atmosphere. Everyone was upset except Jesus.

    "Why do you bother her?" he continued. "She has given a beautiful expression of her devotion to me." The Master had perceived the meaning of Mary's symbolic gesture. She had penetrated the Mystery of Jesus' true identity far in advance of the disciples. 

    In the cultural context of the time, courtesy required anointing the head of an honored guest with oil, washing his feet and giving him a kiss. These were the ordinary courtesies extended to everyone invited to an important dinner. The crucial point that Mary was trying to express by means of her symbolic gesture was, "This is no ordinary guest! The ordinary courtesies are not enough!"

    Mary was aware of what was being plotted by the authorities and wanted to affirm the dept of her faith in Jesus in a way that could not possibly be misunderstood. Some gesture had to be made before it was too late. Everyone recognized that by anointing him with expensive perfume, the symbol of her love, she was expressing her devotion to him and manifesting the gift of herself. But the deepest meaning of her symbolic gesture was not simply the gift of herself, but the totality of that gift. Not only did she anoint him with the costly perfume; she smashed the bottle and emptied its entire contents over his head! She threw herself away, so to speak, emptying every last drop of the perfume in superabundant expression of the total gift of herself. This is the meaning of her extraordinary gesture as Jesus perceived it and which so moved him. "You always have the poor with you," he said, "but you do not always have me. She did what she could: by anointing my body, she prepared it for burial just in time."

    Anointing the bodies of the dead was one of the burial rites of the Jews at the time of Jesus. By referring to this practice, Jesus introduces a further element in her extraordinary gesture. The smashing of the jar filled with precious perfume represents not only Mary's total gift of herself to Christ; it also represents the totality of the Father's gift to us in Christ. Her action prefigures the smashing of Jesus' body on the cross. His body is the alabaster jar filled with the perfume of infinite value, that is, the Spirit of God. It was to be broken to pieces in order that the divine Spirit dwelling in it might be poured out over the world without any limit and fill the entire human family with divine love.

    Mary's prophetic action points to the crushing of Jesus' body on the cross as the symbol of the Father's infinite mercy, the visible sign of God's fundamental attitude toward the human family: unconditional love. In the passion of Jesus, God throws himself away, so to speak, and dies for us.

    In this remarkable incident, Mary manifests her intuition into what Jesus is about to do. Moreover, she identifies with him to such an intimate degree that she manifests the same disposition of total self-giving that he is about to manifest on the cross. She had learned from Jesus how to throw herself away and become like God. That is why this story must be proclaimed wherever the Gospel is preached. "To perpetuate Mary's memory" is to fill the whole world with the perfume of God's love, the love that is totally self-giving. In the concrete, it is to anoint the poor and the afflicted, the favored members of Christ's Body, with this love.

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Mystery of Christ by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.