We’ve taken to responding “perfect” these days to texts and emails making arrangements of one sort or another. It’s so common that, however reassuring, my contrarian self usually avoids it.

Not so with what Mary does in today’s Gospel: anointing the feet of Jesus with a large quantity of “costly perfumed oil” and drying them with her hair. We’re invited to place ourselves there, seeing Mary’s devotion, hearing the oil washing over Jesus’ feet and the gentle sound of Mary’s hair, breathing in the aroma filling the room.

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