I’m getting tired of talking to people who are surrounded by a square and are on a computer screen. I am getting tired of celebrating Mass by looking at a small camera and not my community. I am getting tired not being able to go have a burger. I am getting tired of not having live sporting events to distract me from all they other things that I am getting tired of not being able to do.
Okay, I’ve now complained and I am sure that in many ways you too are getting tired of a myriad of different things that would fill a book quickly. I also know deep down the measures being taken are important and life saving. I also know my little complaints dwindle and fade away quickly under the glare of the true suffering and pain, the fear and dread, the worry and doubt rippling through our community, city, state, country and the world at this time.

So, what are we to do in the light of our Catholic faith and how do we confront this with the mind of Jesus Christ? First, I believe, is friendship. Fr. Joseph in his homily last week talked about this: the reality of friendship in our lives. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (Jn 15:15) Friendship helps to unmask the anxiety and fear for what they are and begins to open the eyes of our heart to the presence of God within our relationships of love. Friendship strengthens our willingness to reach out because it cannot be accomplished alone, it must be in unity with another in a positive action of grace and life-giving generosity. Friendship renews our spirit because the truth of being loved for who we are and not what we can do sends the fire of grace deep into our bones and moves us into active and thoughtful actions.
One of the biggest changes in my life these past few weeks is having dinner, almost every night, with Fr. Steve and Fr. Joseph. We have always shared at least one dinner a week and would often catch each other, on the run, for breakfast or other meals but we haven’t in almost 5 years had as many dinners together as we have shared the past few weeks. During these meals we have grown in brotherhood as priests and shared stories of life, discussed the latest news and other serious, mundane and humorous takes on life and ministry. It has been one of the blessings of this gift of enforced time. (trust me in this also, there are all the normal annoying things too)

This is one of the lessons we can all take from this: there are opportunities, even in the destructiveness of this pandemic, to find the friendship of Jesus Christ in the center of our relationships. “‘To live is to change’ the saying goes. Major events either positive or negative, call for adjustments that are ultimately enriching but momentarily exhausting. Friendships do not stay the same. We grow or decline in our relationships over time.” (p 44-45 “Friendship: The Key to Spiritual Growth” by Fr. John W. Crossin) This is what the first disciples discovered in the relationship with Jesus…the quote from St. John’s Gospel above places this change at the center of our call to follow Jesus. The calling towards friendship is always a greater growth in intimacy of knowing the other. To take time in prayer, meditation, contemplation, conversation and play with family, friends and Jesus helps us to know the friend who calls us into life.
I am praying for a greater friendship with our Lord in my life and the life of all.
God Bless
Fr. Mark