In my work as a respiratory therapist, I enter into many patients’ rooms while making my rounds. It can become very routine saying the same things and completing the same tasks over and over again. But, this one evening when I walked into an elderly woman’s room, I was questioned by her, “Are you here to bring me Communion?” Mixed emotions arose in me at that moment. On the one hand, I was heartbroken having to tell her no, I didn’t have Communion, I was just there for her therapy. On the other hand, my heart rejoiced at the thought that she sensed His presence in me.
As baptized Christians, we carry within us the three persons of the Holy Trinity and with the capacity of ‘anointing’ others with the grace of this Presence. It is like that priceless jar of oil that Mary carries and does not keep for herself but pours it out until the entire house is filled with its fragrance. Every person we encounter is Christ and every encounter unique, unrepeatable, and we know not if we shall ever have that soul before us again. So like Mary, let us live each moment as though it were our last, seize it and humble ourselves by bending low before others, even so low as to have our hair become entangled in their toes. May we neither hold back out of fear or shame nor be dissuaded by detractors, that, by our selfless acts in thought, word, and deed, we may anoint each other with His presence, thereby filling the entire world with the fragrance of His Love.