“Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom” Psalm 145

“I have lost contact with so many people who meant a lot to me at different stages of my life, people I loved dearly and really cared for and who had given me so much and made me what I am.” Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that this is true for him, and he suspects it’s the same for most of us. People enter our lives, friendships develop, and then some of those friends disappear from our lives. One of the richest experiences of grace that we can have this side of eternity is the experience of friendship. In Christian spirituality, true friendship is only possible among people who are practicing virtue. Fr. Rolheiser writes that genuine friendship is nothing less than a participation in the flow of life and love inside of God. Scripture tells us that God is love, but the word it uses for love, in this case, is the Greek word agape, a term which might be rendered as “family,” “community,” or “the sharing of life.”  Hence, the famous text (“God is Love”) might be transliterated to read: God is family, God is community, God is shared existence, and whoever shares his or her existence inside of community and friendship is participating in the very flow of life and love that is inside the Trinity. As we all know, deep, life-giving friendship is as difficult as it is rare. Why? We’re different from each other, unique, and rightly cautious as to whom we give entry into our soul. And so, it isn’t easy to find a soulmate, to have that kind of affinity and trust. Nor is it easy to sustain a friendship once we have found one. Friendship, like love, is always partly a mystery, something beyond us. It’s a struggle in all cultures. Part of this is simply our humanity. Scripture tells us that, as believers, we form together a body that, as much as any living body, is a true living organism, with all parts affecting all other parts. Inside that body, we’re present to each other, not fully consciously, of course, but deeply, truly. And to the extent that we’re living our lives faithfully and sharing honest friendship and fellowship with those who are immediately around us, we’re not only healthy enzymes helping bring health to the body, but we’re also present to each other affectively, in a way that touches us at the deepest level of our souls There is a place where we are not neglecting each other. And so, to all my friends: we’re still together!

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