The Joy of Friendship – Br. James Koester
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Aelred of Rievaulx, Monastic and Theologian, 1167
We remember today, Aelred, the twelfth century abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx in northern England, who died on this day in the year 1167. Aelred is most remembered for his writings on the gift of friendship, hence the marvelous collect that we once prayed on this day:
Pour into our hearts, O God, the Holy Spirit’s gift of love,
that we, clasping each the other’s hand, may share the joy
of friendship, human and divine, and with your servant
Aelred draw many into your community of love….
The gift of friendship, both human and divine, which we celebrate today, is perhaps one of the most debased gifts of our time, for we can friend any number of people, many of whom we have never met in person, with the click of a computer key. At the same time, we can un – friend them just as easily. People also speak of friends with benefits, or hook – ups, by which they mean people who enjoy physical intimacy, without the problem of emotional intimacy or commitment. Aelred, I think would be appalled by it all.
For Aelred, friendship was a sacrament of God’s love. It is a way, not the only way, but a way in which you and I can taste here and now the mystery of God’s love for us. God has not friended us with the mere click of a computer key, and nor will God un-friend us with the click of the same key. At the same time, God does not regard us simply as a friend with benefits without the complexity of emotional intimacy or commitment.
What many regard as friendship today, is not what Aelred wrote about, when he described friendship as the medicine of life for friendship, Aelred says, heightens the joy of prosperity and mitigates the sorrows of adversity by dividing and sharing them. Hence the best medicine in life is friendship.
It is only in true friendship that we can know and be known in ways that heal our sorrows and multiply our joys. Such friendship takes hard work and a level of emotional commitment not found solely on a keyboard. While a computer may help to nurture such a friendship over time and long distances, it cannot replace the face – time that true friendship requires to survive and thrive.
In the same way, God longs for face – time with us, not the cursory click of a keyboard, or the fleeting acknowledgement that often passes for prayer, or a friend with benefits relationship that carries with it no degree of emotional honesty, intimacy, or commitment. To paraphrase John, and Aelred, for God so loved us that he gave his Son that we, clasping each the other’s hands, human and divine, might be friends with one another, and our joys heightened, and our sorrows mitigated.
Brother James: I was trying to print out your beautiful reflection, only to discover that my laptop no longer wanted to communicate with my printer. After bumbling about without success, my initial impulse was to find a monastery where I could draw cute little pictures of bunnies in the margins of Bibles. But then I telephoned my much younger next-door neighbor–a techie–with a cry for help. In a few minutes, she came over and quickly got things working again. I couldn’t wait to show her the title on the sheet emerging from the printer–“The Joy of Friendship.” Thank God for my neighbbor and friend, Heather, who quickly and generously fixed my electronics and preserved my sanity.
My tears fall heavy for those in our midst who need our love and compassion and for those who are so heinously being treated. My sister and shockingly some of my church friends have been indoctrinated by the cult of evil that is being broadcast night and day on the television. We need to pray for them in earnest, that they come back to the love of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of his love and compassion for them, all people.
You’ve said a mouthful, Br. James, about the divine gift of friendship and even more about the debasement of this gift and all God’s other good gifts by our addiction to the machines that now rule and subdue us to their will. As we see from current events, it is not we who own them but they who own us, delivering us daily into the power of the oligarchs, whose satanic ‘gifts will be our ruin unless we wake up and ‘clasp each other’s hand’. It’s just gotten a lot harder to do that, but that makes it a lot more necessary. Pray for our benighted nation, just as your friends out here in it pray for you and your brothers.