Today, Monday of Holy Week, we are given a Gospel text, the Anointing at Bethany. The anointing of Jesus at Bethany is an event that is narrated in the accounts of the four evangelists, something which is relatively rare. The details differ slightly from evangelist to evangelist. Matthew and Mark have the woman who carries out the anointing anoint Jesus on the head, and Luke and John have her anoint his feet. It was customary for a woman on her wedding day to bind her hair, and for a married woman to loosen her hair in public was a sign of grave immodesty. Mary was oblivious to all around her except for Jesus. She took no thought for what others would think. In humility, she stooped to anoint Jesus’ feet and dry them with her hair. In this holy week, we can ask ourselves, how do we anoint the Lord’s feet and show him our love and gratitude? Her deed of love shows the extravagance of love, a love that we cannot outmatch. The Lord Jesus showed us the extravagance of his love by giving us the best he had by pouring out his own blood for our sake and by anointing us with his Holy Spirit. Joy is an infallible indication of God’s presence, just as the cross is an infallible indication of Christian discipleship. What a paradox! And Fr. Rolheiser writes that Jesus is the reason. We see, for example, in John’s Gospel account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet at the banquet. All that lavishness, extravagance, and raw human affection is understandably unsettling for almost everyone in the room except for Jesus. He’s drinking it in, unapologetically, without dis-ease, without any guilt or neurosis: Leave her alone, he says, she has just anointed me for my impending death. In essence, Jesus is saying: When I come to die, I will be more ready because tonight, in receiving this lavish affection, I’m truly alive and hence more ready to die. In essence, this is the lesson for us: Don’t feel guilty about enjoying life’s pleasures. The best way to thank a gift-giver is to enjoy the gift thoroughly. Genuine enjoyment, as Jesus taught and embodied, is integrally tied to renunciation and self-sacrifice. And so, it’s only when we can give our lives away in self-renunciation that we can thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of this life, just as it is only when we can genuinely enjoy the legitimate pleasures of this life that we can give our lives away in self-sacrifice.