When it comes to offering to God, human reason wants to show how useless it is to offer anything to God. And the reason may insist on why we should not offer anything to God. Indeed, God does not lack anything. He has all. Moreover, whatever material offering would not be useful to God because he is spiritual. The reason will tell us not to waste time in prayer and thanksgiving. God knows what we want and need before we ask. It is God’s job to give us good things! Instead, we should help each other in need, the reason will teach us.
When the spirit of love does not guide human reason, human reason becomes a blind guide. And this blind guide leads us away from God. Judas certainly knew how to reason. But he did not have the spirit of love. That is why he could not understand Mary’s act of offering. For Judas, Mary’s anointing Jesus with expensive perfume was nothing but a wasteful act of stupidity.
Without the guidance of the spirit of love that comes from the Lord, we cannot go to Him or remain in Him. Without the true love of the Lord, the Church would become a social welfare institution. But without the true love for the Lord, the Church would not even remain as a charity organization. Once we forgot the Lord, the charity would become a means of building a higher ego and exercising one’s power.
The spirit of love teaches how to be wasteful for the Lord. It shows how to empty our selfish egos. It guides how to pour out our souls for others. Those in love waste. They waste time, energy, and money. But only through wasting, we love. Mary wasted her life savings when she emptied the jar of perfume for the love of Christ. But remember. Now Christ filled her soul.
