Sharing Time with Others of Faith (midweek message)

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

March 11, 2015

Sharing Time with Others of Faith

I just spent an hour with a parishioner who has been home bound with illness, who is in pain that draws the person daily toward depression.

Just being together was tonic for us both.  In the words of the old saying, sorrow shared is sorrow halved and joy shared is joy doubled. 

I think this is why Jesus calls us to be church, to be a community of faith, love, and service.  Life can be very very hard at times.  Simply spending time with one’s companions on the way and talking helps soften what otherwise might be intolerable. 

The Iranian mystic poet Rumi wrote the following about sharing friendship with those who have faith:

Don’t take a wooden sword into battle.

Go, find one of steel;

Then march forward with joy. 

The saints’ protection is Truth’s sword,

Your time with them

Is worth as much as the cup of life itself.

All the wise have the said the same:

The one who knows God

Is God’s mercy to His creatures… 

Companionship with holy ones makes you one of them.

Though you’re rock or a marble, you’ll become a jewel

When you have grown into a man of heart. 

Plant the love of the holy ones within your spirit;

Don’t give your heart to anything,

But the love of those whose hearts are glad.

Don’t go to the neighborhood of despair:

There is hope. 

Don’t go in the direction of darkness:

Suns exist.

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony+