"Called thee by Name"

(Stained glass window in the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Drogheda, Ireland)

Mary Magdalen's eyes were so swollen and filled with tears, she couldn't see. She had been through such a terrible weekend with her Lord and Master being cruelly tortured and killed, and all she wanted to do now was find His poor Broken Body, so she could give Him a decent burial ritual. That's all she wanted...and now even that was being denied her.

But when Our Lord spoke her NAME....her own name... "Mary"...then she recognized Him, and all her sorrow was turned to joy, "and her joy no man could take care from her."

Have you ever thought about the joy that will be ours when we hear Our Lord speak *our* name for the first time? If we have lived the way He wants us to live, and have died the way He wants us to die, He will speak it with tenderness and love. God forbid that He speak our name in condemnation and contempt! Let us live our lives so as to hear Him say it with triumphant joy as He invites us to join Him in His kingdom!

We read in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaias's beautiful words:

"And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine."