Across today’s three readings and Responsorial Psalm, there were several comforting and familiar phrases – I feel greatly blessed to have had such meaningful words and images to feed my imagination.  But even among these hopeful words, I found one with extraordinary power to begin with.

Beloved. 

In a world spiraling with the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us feel unsettled at best. Too many have lost any sense of security; fewer but still many too many have lost loved ones. Still I wonder whether you, too, closed your eyes on your reading to FEEL the warmth of an embrace, to HEAR the whisper of a loving God reminding us we are his beloved.  It immediately helped me.

Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.  

I wonder whether you, too, immediately thought of our Covid-19 heroes who are putting themselves in harm’s way to do what is good for others – and whether you, too, said a little prayer that they realize that their suffering is a grace before God.  I wonder if you, too, thought that the ‘suffering’ that some of us are experiencing because of the need to remain distant from others is also a grace before God (and such a minor sacrifice!).  It brought me GREAT peace to be reminded of the Easter promise in this passage – that if we experience any suffering at all in doing what is good, we have been called to do so because Christ gave us the example of his sacrifice for each of us.