Leveling Up

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary strike a chord with the concept of "leveling up" which is well known to video game players. The Acts of the Apostles tells of the travel of Apollos from Alexandria to Ephesus where he is fearlessly instructing the Jews in the synagogue about the Scriptural revelation that Jesus is Messiah. Priscilla and Aquila, companions of Paul, explain to him the Baptism of Jesus for forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as an invitation to understand and experience greater intimacy with God than he was preaching based on the Baptism of John. Friar Jude Winkler comments that some scholars attribute the authorship of the Letter to the Hebrews to Apollos. Our call from God to even greater intimacy, to be more fully connected is sometimes resisted by our false humility which might be a reluctance to trust that the deeper path is also the the most loving direction. The Gospel of John proclaims that the deepest level of intimacy with the Divine, sometimes referred to as heaven, is the level to which we are invited now. Jesus instructs the disciples from the Last Supper Discourse that the life lived in the Name of the Father, that is in harmony with His will is fruit of the love of Jesus and trust in His union with the Father. The Divine intimacy level described by Jesus is that complete joy when the desire of Creator and Creature are one. Level Up?