Jesus my Friend, Greg Olsen, Idaho Falls, ID, USA.

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[Jesus said] “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”    Matthew 11:28-30.

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Perhaps friendship is the underlying theme in today’s gospel. Like anything else worthwhile, friendship is always a work in progress. True friendship seems to obey the saying “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. True friends are people you enjoy being with, have great times together and, crucially, are there when you are in trouble, and you are there when they are in trouble. A true friend can be always counted on, no matter what. It means, of course, sometimes having to tolerate times when you are asked to do something you are not interested in, or that bore you but your friend loves, and so on (and vice-versa of course), perhaps the “yoke” Jesus mentions. Yes, friendship works in both ways because the friendship is worth it, and the price you have to pay is, basically, nothing compared to what both people get out of it. Now look at the quotation above from today’s gospel, and see if they can be applied to a good, solid friendship. I think they can. There is an old song, published in 1969, called “Come Saturday Morning” which evokes a multitude of feelings, at least it does in me… It talks of deep friendship, the joy of sharing time and good company together, everything that friendship should be. Somehow friendship transports us to other realms, to other realities, which make life a pure joy. Troubles seem to fade away, light overtakes darkness and there is a sense of “If only this could last forever”. As if we can “find rest for ourselves”…. That should be the description for each of us on a Sunday morning, when we unite with the Lord, push pain and trouble into the background and go with Him on a Sunday morning. Sunday should be a perfect day, beautiful, centered on a loving God, focussed on the good, perhaps echoing the beauty of Stephen Sondheim’s lyricism from one of his wonderful musicals….

[All:]
Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water
On the green purple yellow red grass
Let us pass through our perfect park
Pausing on a Sunday

By the cool blue triangular water
On the soft green elliptical grass
As we pass through arrangements of shadow
Toward the verticals of trees
Forever

By the blue purple yellow red water
On the green orange violet mass of the grass
In our perfect park

Made of flecks of light
And dark
And parasols
Bum bum bum bum bum bum
Bum bum bum

People strolling through the trees
Of a small suburban park
On an island in the river
On an ordinary Sunday
Sunday
Sunday

Sunday in the Park with George.

I believe that such beauty, seen in these two works of art mentioned above, is but a simple foretaste of what God has planned for us if we echo these Saturday and Sunday models, each of which reflects God’s presence. The beauty of human friendship and the reality of divine union with the Lord as we follow his example and his teaching, will give us a real foretaste of what we can expect to come. In a sense we can experience heaven now as we enjoy his friendship daily, but especially on Sunday. Finally, there is a hymn, almost completely unknown, which takes us to the heart of our faith, our trust and our hope in the friendship we have with Jesus. That is the profoundest friendship we have; we are the most fortunate to have it, and it will take us from the ups and downs of this life to the ultimate joy God has planned for us, helped in each step by the best friend we each have who has commanded us to love one another.

Life, Hope and Truth.

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