Friends for a Reason, A Season, A Lifetime: This Sunday's Sermon

August 26, 2012 /   Joshua 24:1-2a,15-17,18b  Ephesians 5:21-32   John 6:60-69
St. Claude Chapel, 7 pm Mass, located on Beaconsfield, north of 14 Mile Road, in Clinton Twp., MI.

Friends Who Follow, Those Who Forget, Those Who Flee From Us.

Friends for a reason.

Those for a season.

And, those for a lifetime.

Yes!

Faithful and forever with fidelity in vows said and commitments chosen.

We have a few friends and many acquaintances, no?

Friends fail, flee, forget us.  Friends are human like the rest of us.

And, those who are faithful and forever are fans and followers.

Hell in C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, is envisioned as a dismal town where pople dwell after crafting homes at whim.  They don't enjoy each other.  They grow apart.  Division dwells there.


In his Brittish way, Lewis tells of one resident in hell who wants to see a famous sinner.

But, all the famous sinners moved hundreds of miles away from anyone else.

Nevertheless this person figured out where Napoleon lived and spent months treking him there.

When he arrived and found him, he noticed a huge mansion flooded with light. 

Peeping in the window,  he saw Napoleon marching up and down the halls muttering:

"It was Josephine's fault.  It was Wellington's fault.  It was Lafayette's fault. . ."

Always and forever the blame game for failed, even frutifless friendship, fledgling relationships.

It can't be me! Can it be me?

Yet, grumblers finally desert and flee and forget us . . . and Jesus, in today's hard gospel about "eating my body and drinking my blood."  Go figure!

I may be among them at times.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Believers in God trust God.  Friends trust us despite seeming paradoxes, no?

The longest journey is within, warned Dag Hammershold.

It is.

Befriending God, and my friends begins within. 

Deep within my heart. There within I connect with the Creator, and, the Created friends first.

Deserters rely on themselves alone.

"Lord, to whom shall we go?" Peter asks Jesus.  "You have the words of eternal life."

Difficult dealings in relationships.  In life.  In friendships also.

Life is like that.  Ups and down, betrayal, abandonments,  twists and turns. . .consolations, desolations, blessings, even deserters who abandon us and leave us alone. 

Friends for life and those for a season or a reason only.  There are.

I rely on Jesus and trust in him the Way, Truth, Life!

My friendship with him develops deep within where all connections emerge and start. It takes time. A lot of time.

My source, resource is God.

When I depend on myself and my resources alone, I fail and fumble in fidelity, faithfulness, and friendships.  I do.

Hard sayings of Jesus remind us that we are spiritual beings who thirst and long for meaning and more.  When I have meaning and purspose I have everything.  And, I can bear most every travail and obstacle.

  Cheers.  To the Source!

To life.  To the Friend.  And, friends.  Life!  La Hayem!  La Vida!