Reflections for June 24, 2012

Reflections on the Season                June 24, 2012

From today’s readings ….

1 Samuel 18

…the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

 

Psalm 133

 

¹How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

²It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

³It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

Mark 4:40

…“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

I’m going to try to put these readings together and find their connections, to see what we can learn from this seemingly odd amalgam.

Soul friends

On the retreat two weeks ago, we briefly touched on the Celtic Christian practice of anamchara.  Anam in Gaelic means soul and chara (pronounced “kara”) means friend.  An anamchara, then, was a soul friend, one who acted as a spiritual guide, with whom one could discuss all personal matters, ones calling and path, without fear.  In the early Celtic church, all serious followers of Christ were expected to have an anamchara, and the relationship was often one of mutuality.  I think it has great value and I see some glimpses of this being realized in our community life today. But this aspect of Celtic culture is very counter to our culture, I don’t think we need to beat ourselves up and feel bad because we don’t have anything like this kind of a soul friendship. 

Reading the passage from 1 Samuel, I wonder if the relationship being described between Jonathan and David was one of soul-friendship, akin to Celtic anamchara.  I am also struck by how rare this kind of friendship is in our culture today, especially between men.  I’m sure this has a lot to do with the fear of being perceived to be in a homosexual relationship. And men are very busy, and we really don’t put the same high value on this kind of a relationship.  Instead, we tend to have the romantic partner or spouse as the anamchara. 

In any case, Psalm 133 celebrates the fruits of this kind of true deep friendship. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity”  I read in some more literal translations “when life is lived together like brothers”.  I take it to mean that this  “brother” is like an anamchara. In Living Hope Fellowship, there has been a weekly meeting of women, sharing deeply as friends, for years.  The men have just now started a monthly meeting, and I just learned of another small group of men starting a similar circle of friendship, both very courageous and positive signs.

Jesus as soul friend

The Gospel reading thrown into this discussion at first seems out of place.  Jesus in a boat calming the storm-raged lake?  Yet after we go through the usual questions about miracles and the physics of wind and waves, I think we are invited to move into the deeper questions of why we are afraid, who this Peacemaker really is to us.  I am immediately reminded of a complementary verse: “There is no fear in love.  Perfect love drives out fear”. 1 John 4:18.  As your love for God and inner focus on the living Christ becomes perfected in this life, you will experience ever greater freedom from fear, and have fewer fear-based reactions, and more love-based reactions.  When we are enveloped in that love, makes it much easier to be soul friends to each other.  Maybe even between….men!

Blessings,

John+