Anguish and Intimacy

The psalmist from the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today proclaims the steadfast love of the Lord. Luke, the Evangelist, in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the anguish of the people and the gracious mercy of the God of steadfast love when they realize that Jesus whom they have crucified is the Messiah who is delivering the Promise of the Covenant to be God in the intimate way known to their ancestors and praised in the psalms. John recounts the experience of Mary Magdalene in her encounter with the Risen Jesus who appeared to her in His Resurrected Being. She recognized Him by the Word and she became the messenger to announce the return of the ‘Rabbouni’ Jesus to the Father and the expectation that the Risen Jesus would join the disciples in Galilee. The evidence of the complete and total and steadfast Love praised by the psalmist is in the submission of the Son willingly to the Father’s revelation of the intimacy of Creature and Creator that no movement, even to death, is too much to live this relationship and that through the Eucharist and Life of the indwelling Spirit this intimacy is both organic and infinite.