Today, though — March 25 — is also the traditional date of Good Friday. According to tradition, Mary’s Child — the God-man, our Rescuer, the Lord of heaven and earth — was both conceived and died on the same day of the year.

“In the midst of life we are in death: dust we are, and to dust we shall return. There we remain unless there is an intervention from beyond this world order. Only a Power greater than that of Death can countermand that strict arrest.”

And, so, the psalmist cries out, “The Lord is my shepherd.” In other words, the One who created the universe from nothing, the one who called into existence everything that is, the one who has no rival and is never anxious or nervous, He is the one who looks after me, who cares for me, who leads me to nourishment, who protects and fights for me. It’s as though the psalmist is inviting us to ask ourselves to whom or to what we look for nourishment, care, and protection. We are, I believe, being asked to consider who our shepherd is?

What are we to make of this? This Gospel reminds us of the shocking, scandalous truth that far more than we desire God, God desires us! Not out of need, not out of lack, not because He doesn’t know what to do now that football is over and March Madness hasn’t started yet. Because He is Love. This wasn’t just true for that woman. It’s true for you and for me. God, the Creator of the universe, desires you! That’s why He created you. That’s why He became a man for you. That’s why He went to the cross for you. That’s why He gives Himself to you and me in the Eucharist. And on and on. How desperately most of us need to know this. Not intellectually. Experientially. In an increasingly anxious, lonely, isolated world, most people long to know they matter, that they’re seen, that they’re loved. And here’s the reality: you are! I am!