What is love like?

Five Senses of Love

reflection on John 12: 1 - 11 for Monday of Holy Week

What does love look like?

Love looks shocking.

Love breaks rules,

as did Mary of Bethany who rubbed perfume

on a rabbi's feet

and dried them with her hair - in public.

Love shocks

when it wastes expensive perfume

or destroys a precious body

like that of Jesus

hung out on a cross to die.

What does love feel like?

Love feels good

to the one who can receive it

like a baby

relaxing in its parents' care,

or like a lover

in the arms of the beloved.

What does love sound like?

Love sounds

to Judas like 300 coins,

a whole year's wages spilling to the ground,

rolling away and lost

- an extravagant waste.

Love sounds

to Jesus like the sound of friends,

of tears, laughter, music

and companionable silence. 

What does love taste like?

Love tastes

like the best food and drink,

caringly prepared,

served and shared.

Love tastes of friendship,

of family and belonging.

What does love smell like?

Love smells

of expensive fragrance

filling the house,

permeating the nostrils

to create memories of intimacy,

and evoke thoughts

of death and burial.

"Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, annointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

(This is a revised version of something I first posted in 5 Senses of Love in 2011)

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons