A friend of mine wrote to me recently. He shared how he had been in a bookstore in his community when he and a stranger got into a conversation about faith. “I feel pummeled” my friend said. For about an hour the man objected to my friend’s faith. Critiqued it. Condemned it. My friend sounded exhausted after the exchange.
There’s no doubt that faith’s under fire these days. Sadly, the objections are sometimes related to the failure of Christians. Christianity is often critiqued because of the unloving words or works of people who claim to follow Jesus but end up acting nothing like Jesus.
Surprisingly, during the Passion Week-the focus of week 3 in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises-we find Mary’s faith under fire (Mk. 14:3-9). Only Mary’s not being harangued by outsiders. Mary’s being condemned by insiders. Her religion is called a “waste.” Her reverence is called a distraction from more important matters, like giving to the poor. Mark bluntly says she is “scolded” for the way she practices her piety.
What gives? Mary, that’s what. And extravagantly. Too extravagantly. Mary breaks open a flask of perfume so expensive it could help an average laborer feed his family for nearly a year. She pours it on Jesus’ head. She pours it on Jesus’ feet. She anoints Jesus with it.
But what others call wasteful, Jesus calls “beautiful.” In fact, Jesus predicts that the act is so gorgeous it will be forever attached to the proclamation of the gospel.
It is, Jesus explains, a way in which Mary has “anointed my body beforehand for burial.” And, careful students of the larger Story will see in the act a reflection of the anointing of a king, as kings of old were appointed with the application of oil on their heads.
Mary’s not just a person of belief. She’s a person of conviction. She’s not just a person of doctrine. She’s a person of devotion. Mary demonstrates a faith that infects her heart, not just her head. She’s a person of passion.
It’s her passion for Jesus which leads to the objections.
And I wonder-could anyone today object to my faith for the same reason? I fear that my religion is still too much a matter of my head and too little a matter of my heart. I find evidence of belief, but not always evidence of conviction.
May we learn to enter into the suffering of Jesus by experiencing a passionate faith that leads to objections-for all the right reasons.
I heard someone say recently that Churches do a better job producing “believers” than they do in producing “followers”. I see a connection here.
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