Word to the Wise
Friday, May 24, 2013 - Friday in the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 6:5-17 and Mark 10:1-12]A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; for he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.
MAY 24, 2013 THE TRANSLATION OF ST. DOMINIC
The wisdom of Sirach today about friendship has always been one of my favorite passages from the Bible because I know how much I owe to my friends. I could not be a good Dominican friar-priest without the love and support of my friends. Love has to be incarnate, as the example of Jesus teaches us! I have been blessed with wonderful friends to accompany me on my journey. All those years in campus ministry have resulted in a kind of coast to coast network that my itinerant ministry can rely on to provide a smile and welcome. This daily preaching and my monthly newsletter, RBWORDS, were begun, in no small part, because I wanted to give something in return. Each day I take a long walk in the morning to pray the rosary for friends and family. It takes awhile!
St. Thomas Aquinas uses the analogy of human friendship as the paradigm for the best kind of relationship between human and God. God extends friendship to us as a constant kind of gift - a special grace. This gift can come in the human form of friendship when we respond in love to a person with whom we can share our life, hopes, dreams and sorrows. The Gospel of Mark today speaks to the special form of friendship that a true marriage should represent, which makes the dismal statistics about divorce all the more dismal to me! In reading the wisdom of Sirach today, I pray that all my "beloved congregation" can take a moment or two to think of those friends who give us life, hope and comfort and say a special prayer of gratitude for them. AMEN
[Special Dominican note - the feast of the Translation of St. Dominic has nothing to do with language! It refers to the moving of the remains of St. Dominic from an outdoor cemetery in Bologna where he was buried to the elaborate tomb in St. Dominic's Church next door. Many Dominican provinces and houses celebrate this feast more than the actual feast of St. Dominic because that date is August 8th, a popular vacation time!!!!!]