Beloved

Epiphany Last – Year B

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Too much cannot be made of revisting the mountain-top experience of Jesus – repeating the baptismal introduction of belovedness. Imaginative people have tried to push that belovedness backward toward birth and generational genealogies. They have also picked and chosen episodes after to give evidence of such belovedness.

When all is said and done, belovedness is such an experience that one will let everything else go to have received it. While a bit of belovedness can be anticipated, it is the receiving, yes, the receiving.

Belovedness makes sense of the prophets of old and resurrections yet to be. It is spoken to the ancient ones and those about to walk forward. Belovedness has already been calling, in our day. May we partner with it as the crux of our life and extension of life.

"God is given two chances to speak, a great opportunity for any actor in any story, and God repeats the same line with only minor variations. This indicates either a remarkable lack of imagination, a monumental case of stage fright, or a powerful fixation on a crucial message that must be delivered. While each of these possibilities ought to be explored when developing a way to tell this story, the last seems most promising." [Richard W. Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of Mark: A Storyteller’s Commentary – Year B – The Pilgrim Press, pp. 129-132.]

If you were given a second chance to speak life to life, what word would you use?