"Anoint" | Reflection by Lucile Bruce

I have a knack for dropping dishes. But imagine choosing to break this jar. Crack! You pour its contents, expensive oil, onto a man’s body and stroke him with your hands, preparing him for his sacred journey. Listen to the voices of your critics: what are you doing? Wasting oil! Breaking a priceless object! Your sense of value is wrong. You disrupt the market economy.

Reflecting on the word “anoint” during Lent, I remembered when my children were babies and I bathed them, pouring water over their small bodies, using my hands to rub lotion over them, anointing them on their sacred journey of growing up. Walking in the park, I saw three ducks swimming in the rain and wondered whether they were being anointed from above—by rain from heaven—or from below, by the water of the river that carves its path deep in the earth. The Easter story crosses many thresholds, upending our paltry constructs: from market politics to liberation, oil to water, broken to whole, earth to sky, death to life, human to God. Anointing is preparation, the awareness of where we are going. Anointing invites us to move with confidence, silencing the critical voice. Last week I talked to my father about the anointing of ducks. He said the resurrection already permeates all of creation. It is there in ducks, in rain. In the woman, man, oil, broken jar. In my hands, your hands, it is already there: the healing and wholeness of all creation.

Caption: Talavera Jar from Puebla, Mexico, at the Yale Art Gallery.

Words in the Wilderness - Walk through the season of Lent with Trinity, one word at a time. Every day (except on Sundays) we will post a photo and a brief refection written by someone in our Trinity community. https://www.trinitynewhaven.org/words-in-the-wilderness