Surrounded by kindness

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Spiritual reflection to start the day in Holy Week with Rev Richard Frazer of the Church of Scotland. Good morning. Not long ago I had a scary health problem. It was a skirmish with my own mortality for the first time in my life. And thanks to the skill of the NHS, I am fully fit again. But my recovery was also assisted by the kindness of family and friends. Even the concern and good wishes of people I hardly knew meant so much. Years ago, I remember conducting the funeral of a woman, who, in her older years had become very isolated and alone, having lost most of her close friends. And her sister told me that she had died from ‘toxic loneliness’. Friendship and kindness can save our lives. Isolation and loneliness can devastate them. It’s no surprise that at the most crucial moment in his life Jesus should turn to his friends. In this case Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus at Bethany. I have always enjoyed the stories of this family that appear in the Gospels. They are very human, recognisable and intimate. During this most telling of weeks as Jesus seeks some companionship and comfort with a family he loved, Mary performs a compassionate ritual and anoints Jesus’s feet with perfumed oils. The air is filled with the aroma of her tender kindness. It is an astonishing act of love. There are times in our lives when we might be surprised by the kindness others are prepared to offer and it is good to accept it, for loneliness can do so much harm. Jesus, our brother and friend. In our own moments of challenge and despair help us to reach out to friends but to know, even when we are alone, that your Spirit hovers over us with comfort and healing. Amen.