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Bring the Spices Before Dawn: St. Mary Salome

The women had already bought the myrrh.

Mark names Salome among the women who watched the crucifixion from a distance and among those who went to the tomb on the first morning after the Sabbath, carrying the spices they had purchased so they could anoint the body (Mk 15:40; 16:1). Matthew identifies the mother of the sons of Zebedee in the same company at the cross (Mt 27:56). She had asked Jesus, earlier, that her two sons sit one on his right and one on his left in the kingdom (Mt 20:20–21). He answered that the places were not his to give and that the cup was still ahead of them. She stayed.

The spices were not free. Someone had paid for them while the body was still behind the stone. The women walked out while it was still dark because the purchase had already been made. A household that has spent the last unclaimed dollar on the next upgrade has nothing left in the jar when the next act of presence requires a concrete thing.

The request and the staying

Salome’s earlier request is recorded without apology. She wanted the best places for her sons. Jesus did not rebuke the desire itself; he redirected it toward the cost. The same woman who asked for thrones is later listed among those who remained when others had left. The household version is not that we never want the better seat. It is that the want does not pre-spend the margin that would let us stay when the cost arrives.

Say a family has already set the tithe and the ordinary bills. A small surplus remains. The decision that keeps the spices available is to leave that surplus unassigned until the need appears, instead of letting the next subscription or the larger vehicle payment claim it in advance. The myrrh is then still in the house when someone needs to be driven to a hospital or a meal needs to be carried to a neighbor.

Presence has a price

Standing near the cross and walking to the tomb were not free of risk or of cost. The women did both. Catholic teaching treats the works of mercy as real acts, not merely intentions (CCC 2447). Providing the material means is part of the act. A free dollar in the household is what lets the next act happen without first borrowing or selling something already in use.

I would rather the spices be bought on an ordinary afternoon than discovered missing at the moment they are required. The women did not wait to see whether the stone would be rolled away before they spent the money. They carried what they had already paid for.

Buy the myrrh while the body is still in the tomb.