Reflection

Coming home at sunset by a road I rarely use I stopped to get this picture and was surprised to run into an old friend.
I was also surprised in meditating on Revelations 1:9-20 to find the Risen Christ refer to himself as the Living One.  "I am the first and the last, the Living One.  Once I was dead and now I am alive forever and ever."  It's the same Greek noun with the definite article that the two men used in asking the women at the empty tomb, "Why are your looking for the Living One among the dead?" 
The initial vision that John describes in Revelations is of a majestic Risen Christ.  The second reading for next weekend leaves out much of the wonder-full description of Jesus.  It contains the same elaborate symbolism that marks all of Revelations.  I found it rich for prayerful reflection.
"I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.  His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force."
Completely otherworldly.  Overwhelming the senses.  John is so awed  that he falls down as if dead.  The Risen Christ assures him and us that he is forever the Living One around us and within us.