The gesture of Mary of Bethany’s anointment, according to the Holy Father, "evokes the bright testimony that John Paul II offered, of an unconditional and unsparing love of Christ". The ‘scent’ of his love ‘filled the whole house’, i.e. the whole Church", because "Pope Wojtyla’s love of Christ spilled over every region of the world it was so intense and powerful". "Aren’t the esteem, the respect and the affection that both believers and non-believers showed him at his death a telling testimony of this?", asked the Pope, according to whom, "the intensive and fruitful pastoral ministry, and even more the Calvary of the agony and the serene death of our beloved Pope, taught to the men of our time that Jesus Christ really was his ‘all’". "The fecundity of this testimony, we know that, depends on the Cross", went on the Pontiff: "In Karol Wojtyla’s life, the word ‘cross’ was not just a word. Since his childhood and early adulthood, he had experienced pain and death. As a priest and as a Bishop, and above all as the Supreme Pontiff, he took very seriously that last call of Christ Resurrected to Simon Peter, on the bank of Lake Galilee: ‘Follow me…You, follow me’". (continued)
