Just prior to this week’s Passion narrative in St. Matthew’s Gospel, there is a small, striking story describing a woman’s scandalous action toward Jesus: “A woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of costly perfumed oil, and poured it on his head” (Matthew 26:7). The ointment was pure nard, worth more than 300 denarii. A year’s wages. Maybe a dowry, maybe a family inheritance. In any case, she breaks it. She does not measure or ration. She pours it all out, irreversibly, over Jesus. Why does this image begin Holy Week?