A Reflection, from Fr. Gareth Ingham, for the 6th of Easter.
The way we communicate with one another has changed considerably over the years.
Rather than meeting together face to face or even picking up the phone, we can turn to either an email or one of the many social media apps to get our message across. It’s often quicker and more convenient to open a small screen and tap out a few words, than to make the effort of leaving our homes or places of work and meeting in the flesh.
Meeting together can take time and effort, which in our busy lives can sometimes feel like another job to be done or task to tick off on the ‘to-do’ list. During the pandemic many of us were introduced to Zoom, Teams, and Facetime, which all allowed us to meet safely online. This was all useful but is it what we need?
Now these modern methods are all good at allowing us to keep in touch, to see each other, but they miss out on something that Jesus mentions again in this weeks Gospel, and that’s the physical reality of ‘abiding’.
Abiding is all about being with, spending time with, making space for and with one another. Abiding is about meeting face to face, sharing a common time together, sharing experiences, and becoming companions. Note that companions are those who share hospitality together, those who literally break bread together, those who abide with one another.
As Jesus points out to his disciples, this sort of abiding leads us to friendship. And friendship can be a deep reality. Earlier in the Gospel story Jesus shows the power of his friendship with Lazarus, by weeping at the news of his death and then raising him from the dead. Jesus then shows his love for his friends by dying for them, by laying his own desires and self-interest aside on the journey through the cross.
Jesus shows us all an example and foundation for friendship. By abiding together in worship, prayer, service, and hospitality, we not only share together the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but we can trust that our Lord is always present with us and abides in us.
Remember, he chose us long before we chose him.
This part of the Gospel has spoken about ‘bearing fruit, fruit that will last’. The fruit of friendship and being friends of Jesus, is just one of these.
Fr. Gareth Ingham
Priest in Charge – The Benefice of CRIFTINS with DUDLESTON and WELSH FRANKTON
and The Benefice of PETTON with COCKSHUTT, WELSHAMPTON, and LYNEAL with COLEMERE.
Feature Image: Moeyaert_Raising_of_Lazarus, Wikicommons, PD.