What does it mean to be anointed? We see it often in church, we put oil on people as a sign of prayers of healing or have the sign of the cross put on our forehead with sacred oil. The use of oil, in Biblical terms has always represented the presence of the Holy Spirit.
We always think of the anointing as the act or even that sets someone or something apart. Jacob anointed a stone that represented holy ground for him. We read in Psalm 23 that God anoints our heads, “in the presences of our enemies”. And Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet with a very expensive oil. But in each of these cases was the point being made that the Holy Spirit is now present in those things or people?
I am a little stretched to see a spirit filled stone. I am also a bit perplexed to think that Jesus needed to be anointed with a holy spirit he already had within him. Perhaps being anointed means something else? Richard Rohr indicates that this something else is that pouring oil over something, anointing something (or someone) does not give that thing or person anything, anointing, instead reveals what is already sacred or the sacredness of it.
Now it makes sense, the presence of the Holy Spirit simply reveals the sacredness of each of us. Jacob pouring oil over the stone did not make it sacred, it showed that it already was. The 23rd Psalm does not say we become sacred being anointed, it means that in the presence of all of our enemies, the Holy Spirit simply reveals who we are in God. And Mary, anointing Jesus’ feet now makes sense as well. She was simply showing that the Spirit was revealing who Jesus really was and is.
All of creation, from Genesis 1:1 has been anointed with the Holy Spirit. Think of that, from day one of our lives, we have the Holy Spirit within, we are anointed. That Spirit simply reveals how Sacred we already are. As we move through life and more of that Spirit is revealed (the more aware of that Spirit we are) the more we realize how Sacred we are to God. How Sacred all of creation is to God.
TMM