Oh Happy Day!

(Icon of Mary Magdalene written by a Companion.)

Today, of course, is our "patronal festival" - Mary Magdalene's feast day.  There's too much to say for one post. 

I'll start by asking your prayers for those who will be making new commitments tonight.

Diane, Ernesto, and Lauren are making their first annual commitment as Covenant Companions, after being Candidates for over a year.

Shelby is making her Candidacy commitment, exploring what it means to be a Covenant Companion.

The rest of us will be renewing our vows and promises - Annie and Dario, Elizabeth and myself.

All of this, this year, on Zoom, with our covenant group, Board members, and friends in attendance.  It will be joyous, and yet poignant - as perhaps befits Mary Magdalene.  Joy, but not simple triumph.

She sees Jesus risen from the dead, but she doesn't get to cling to him.  There's new life, but it's not about going back to what was.  The past is past, except as it lives in memory.  That normal is gone forever.  

But the end of that normal is not the end.  No:  "even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Cor. 5:16-17).

We need to hear this today.  A lot is passing away, and what is emerging is not all pretty.  A lot of it stinks of death.  But amid the stench there are new blossoms, new frontiers of creativity and caring and leadership.  Rather than sighing for the loss of our annual in-person gathering, we are planning a "semester" of events that will deepen our practice of the covenant and our dwelling in the charism.  And tonight, because of the technology we are "forced" to use, we can include others in what is usually a private moment.  We may never be the same.  

I pray we will never be the same: we the Companions, we our country, we our world, we this blessed creation in which we are privileged to dwell.  I pray for the new creation in Christ.

In this new creation, "the love of Christ urges us on" (2 Cor. 5:14).  What I love about this is the ambiguity of the phrase.  "The love of Christ": is that Christ's love for us, or our love of Christ?  I don't really want to have to choose, whatever Paul meant.   I like to see it as a circuit - Christ's love urging me to more love, my love of Christ urging me to live no longer for myself, but to share the good news of this love.

So today, my friends and companions, let the love of Christ urge you on, encourage you, dwell in you richly.  I give thanks for all of you who have blessed us with your support and participation over the years, too many to name.  May we all know and share this new creation.