“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. And they gave him a dinner there; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him” (John 12:1-2).
I don’t think it’s simply a coincidence that we read this page of friendship just hours after Jesus’ Passion. It is friends who make life possible, both in its happiest hours and in its most terrifying. Because friends allow you to “sit at the table,” that is, to experience a relationship as equals, without always having to fill roles or feel inferior to others.
Friendship is an alliance that makes us feel in the right place at the right time.
But sometimes friendship is also something more, and Mary’s gesture clearly describes this: “Mary then took a pound of very expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment” (John 12:3).
What did this woman friend do at Jesus’ feet?
She performed a gesture of tenderness, affection, and closeness. Friendship is also the place where we allow ourselves to be loved in the most intimate way, where we are not ashamed of allowing ourselves to be touched by that concrete good that sometimes even passes through our bodies.
Friendship is the place where we experience the excess of love, that is, its gratuitousness.
This is why Judas contests this gesture, because only those who have had a true friend can understand Mary’s alphabet. The rest is just calculation.
(Mary anoints the feet of Jesus Lazzarini-Gregorio_1655-1730)
