17 Apr Wednesday

Attended the Chrism Mass, which I always enjoy. Archbishop’s homily focused on friendship with Jesus through the imagery of John 15, the vine and the branches, long appropriated by Precious Blood spirituality. It struck me that the thing that is most loving that we do with friends is to suffer with them.

This deep friendship seems difficult, not only because of time and distance, to say nothing of culture. In order to accompany Jesus during this Tritium, there must be this deep friendship. The friends, us, learn to give ourselves away back to the Friend, in the same manner as His own self-emptying is given for us. Ultimately all this is about communion.

We see from Peter, Judas, Thomas, Simon of Cyrene, all the Marys, Longinus the soldier, and others the challenges, the steep learning curve of this sort of friendship. So full of ourselves, we come to the cross, the horror of death, and in confronting it, we enter into the great mystery of life.

Perhaps we just might glimpse the growing ray of light through the clouds, the coming resurrection. There’s a very simple American folk hymn called, “Love Will Roll the Clouds Away,” that I have found sustaining.