At these times of darkness, I know what I needed. I needed healing, healing of my soul, my spirit. Have you ever felt your soul needed healing? Healing comes in many ways, but I discovered that the type of healing I needed required reclaiming connection, acceptance, and love for those around me. We are all called to be a healing presence to those in need. But how can we become this for one another…for just being in relationship with another person does not guarantee it will foster healing. Some relationships can be damaging, destructive doing more harm than good. So how can we be present to one another in a way that healing can come? At the core of healing relationships is compassion; compassion experienced, and compassion shared. This morning we get a unique look into scripture for the learning for us comes not just from the words written but from the shared experience of compassion, real compassion made visible in this interaction between Mary and Jesus. We get this image of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume. I can see her leaning in close to Jesus, touching his feet, and Jesus accepting her gift of touch and connection. For the outside looking in, knowing just what compassion looks like can be challenging, it is easier to know what compassion is not because our hearts know. Our hearts know compassion, our hearts know when another person is present to us in a way that builds connection.  I want to share with you a brief clip by Brené Brown that we help us see even more clearly the relationship between compassion (which is empathy) and connection.

I (Barbara) have watched this clip so many times I’ve lost count. It speaks to me at a heart level and helps all of us to understand how to build connection. Empathy fuels connection and sympathy drives disconnection. Connection is what we are striving for if we are to be a healing presence to others, a healing presence that is life giving. Brené defines empathy as feeling with people.” So, connection is made when we are vunerable enough to show our own feelings as a way to connect with another. I’ve heard many reasons why connection is difficult, maybe you feel you don’t have the gifts needed…”I lead with my mind not my heart…” We have many reasons why we choose to keep distant from those who need us. It can be really scary to enter into another person’s pain. But this is what Brené says, “empathy is a choice, a vulnerable choice.”

In the scripture passage, Mary is making a choice to show compassion to Jesus. It was so hard for the disciples to comprehend that Jesus was to die. They wanted to deny it, to move on. But not Mary. We know from scripture that it is just six days before the Passover, six days until Jesus will enter Jerusalem, and he knows it is in Jerusalem that he will die. When Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume she is entering into a sacred space, being present with Jesus in a way that she is sharing with him in the death that is to come. Jesus connects the anointing to his own burial. When one risks being present to another, there is a connection, a mutuality that binds you together and is life giving. Mary was courageous and vulnerable, and Jesus was open and welcoming. Think about how rare this is…our natural tendency when someone is dying or even when someone is simply going through a very difficult time, is to stay in the background, keep a bit of a distance, hold back our feelings and emotions.  Letting yourself join in the experience of another’s pain and suffering, being present without judgment, without a fix, without an answer…  simply being present is a holy, holy experience. It is holy because in these moments of deep connection, in these moments of experienced compassion God is present. The living God is present turning the darkness into light, God is present creating life out of death. We can be stewards of healing by showing compassion to one another. Healing comes from an authentic connection with another that is always, always life giving.  Amen