"Beloved..."

 

That’s our name – our scriptural name. Pay attention, don’t brush it off. Remembering that it is what God always calls us can bring us out of a funk. We need to remember.

 

The liturgy has brought us into the brilliant light of the resurrection. We are almost blinded by the beauty of Word as he emerges from the tomb like some magnificent butterfly: the same as went in, but now so different. Pay attention to what comes after misery and death.

 

We almost breathe a sigh of relief. The shadows and darkness of the Passion are behind us (Really? Be careful.) and it is so great to see that this sweet Word sent to us from the Father is no longer dead. He lives.

So, as beloved, why must we be careful? We need to stop a bit and remember: this is not only about Jesus. It’s about the beloved too. It’s our story, closer to us than our cheek.

 Most of us don’t live too long in the blinding light of the resurrection, in the promise that one day we will be as he is, “…that we shall be like him.” We slog it out down in the valley of shadows, storms, struggles, and sighs. But remembering our name might just help out to walk our daily walk with a sly little smile.

We know who we are, and whose we are. No mistakes, no hidden sins, no moments of losing it can change that. We are the beloved. In our deepest darkest sorrows, when the darkness is so thick we can cut it with a knife, we need to remember our name. This simple practice may just be our “hand-up” when we are really down.

The paschal mystery story we have just retold ourselves is our story. We will know rejection of our sincerest efforts. We will be betrayed by someone we love. We will try to struggle with the load of the day and fall down…again and again. We may be stripped of our dignity. We will need to face our own dying. But through it all we will be picked up and carried by the One who calls our name, over and over…The sound of who we are is the wind beneath our wings. Nothing and no one can separate us from the grasp of the risen One who calls us beloved.

 

You give me life and forget so much…

Thank you.

Keep eastering in me

day by day.