To understand the composition of this icon, we need to read the passage from the Gospel according to Saint John 12:1-9. Everything is there: the meal, Jesus and Lazarus next to him, the Apostles, the Jews who had come out of curiosity, Judas and his purse, Martha who is serving and Mary, his sister, who is pouring perfume on Jesus' feet.
Jesus replies to Judas' protest: "This perfume was for my burial". In the Gospel of Matthew (26, 13) Jesus adds: "Truly I say to you, wherever this Gospel (this Good News) is proclaimed in the whole world, it will be said in her memory what she has just done". Because Mary, in a prophetic gesture, by spreading her perfume, was announcing LIFE = the Resurrection. Death smells bad, LIFE smells GOOD: "And the house was filled with the fragrance of the Perfume (12, 3)." The woman's mission is always to announce LIFE. But it is also the mission of every Christian life. Every Christian is called to proclaim LIFE and to become a fragrance for God, because Saint Paul tells us: "We are for God the good fragrance of Christ". (II Corinthians 2, 15)
The 2 buildings tell us that this scene took place in a house, the building on the left; the one on the right symbolises Jerusalem. It is green, the colour of Life, of motherhood: "In Jerusalem, everyone said to her, 'Mother,' for in her everyone was born" Whatever the place where God manifests Himself, it will always be in Jerusalem. The great red veil hovering above is the symbol of the covenant and the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Sister Marie-Paul
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