I was re-reading Mark 14.1-9, the story of the woman at Bethany. Quite probably like everyone else, I've always read this narrative and focused on that line, "the poor you always have with you". Today, though, something different: "She has done a beautiful thing".
What strikes me so much about this line? The Greek word that Jesus used for "beautiful" is καλός (kalos), which is more usually translated "good.
It crops up all over the NT, but -- for me -- most significantly in John's Gospel, where Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd; for the word means not only "good" and "beautiful", but also "good at the job". And when Luke reports Jesus saying "Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you", the good we are called to do isn't only "good (for them)" but also "beautiful". In other words, if the woman did what she did for Jesus kalos, we're called to do likewise. And not just to Jesus, but to everyone we meet.
This act, then, resonates with Matthew 25.
More and more, I've come to describe my faith in similar terms, in aesthetic terms -- "the good" and "the beautiful". Some things in the world -- big global things and small things I notice during the day -- I find beautiful. Other things I find ugly. And more, I try to live in a beautiful way, and with creative integrity. And behind all these judgments is an aesthetic that is distinctively Christian.
What is faith? I'm often not sure. But I think a part of faith looks a lot like what the woman at Bethany does.
Faith is going places and doing beautiful things to anoint the Crucified One as Lord.