The Scent of Holiness

June 2023. While in Dublin our little group of eight writing buddies visited the Chester Beatty Museum. The exhibit of note on display was “First Fragments.” Emma, a private tour guide, took us through the exhibit. I learned to appreciate so much more about the authors and scribes of the sacred texts on display. Pictured here is a fragment of the Letter to the Galatians! That’s nuts! It’s ancient and mysterious to think of looking upon a letter written by Paul, as in Paul of the Bible Paul. (And you know what fan of letter writing I am!)

I’ll confess that one piece of old parchment letter writing looked pretty much like another to me. I know they are important but it didn’t touch me in the same way it did some of the scholars in our group. This is where having a guide came in handy. Emma told us the little bottle we were looking at is called a funerary bottle. This is just like the one used in the Bible story from the book of John, where Mary breaks open a bottle of perfume and washes Jesus feet. Wait, what? This is it? I was gobsmacked. I’d always thought it was a big bottle (or gallon drum!). Instead it’s a tiny bottle with a slim opening to control small amounts of liquid coming out. Somehow this tangible detail moved me. I saw the precious, the holy, the gift Mary was offering Jesus. It has colored the way I think of this story now. And this is what is dear to me, finding new ways to think of old stories. Finding new insights and cherishing the Divine all the more.