When I worked at the Erie Clinic in Waukegan, I had a patient who had been homeless for over a decade. For many, homelessness is related to long-standing addiction or mental illness. But in the case of this man, whom I’ll call Vince, I’m not sure what the backstory was. Vince had long since beaten addiction. He was good-natured and pleasant, a favorite client among staff at PADS Lake County. He dutifully brought his long-term medications to each appointment so that we could review them together, and he generally took good care of himself, apart from smoking, which was something he had no interest in giving up. But Vince’s toenails were thickened and gnarled, and he had a hard time cutting them. The toenails, it turns out, were a blessing for me. I don’t have the resources to treat poverty, but I can use toenail sheers and could offer him a service more useful than another reminder to quit smoking.
The scripture passage this week about Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus’s feet reminded me of my appointments with Vince. At each 3-month follow-up, I’d kneel in front of him to care for his feet, while I listened to him share about his day-to-day life.
One definition of the word anoint is to ceremonially confer a holy office upon another. But I think in those appointments, I was the one granted something holy. I felt the presence of God in the company of this gentle person, who trusted me with his toes. He was God reminding me to be humble, reminding me that I live in a fragile bubble of privilege, reminding me that love is simple, and that it becomes transformational when we care for another.
-Frances Baxley