The Red-head Boy
When I saw him in the communion line, I did a double-take. He seemed about the same size, with similarly messy red hair, as one of my grandsons. I watched him with fascination: he was somewhat independent but not transgressive, like my grandson. He knew where he was and was happy, a little running to the side then back into the line. He looked up when he reached the altar. Although I knew he was not my grandson, still I felt that I knew him.
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A guy passed me on the Katy trail. Another double-take: Do I know him? But if so, from where? one of the churches I visit? at the library? at a restaurant? Then I realized it was none of these, that in fact, we were strangers jogging past each other. The shape of his head, his jawline, his overall height: they had evoked the memory of a priest who, back in New York, had been first a student of mine and then a colleague. That priest is one of my “friends on hold”; I haven’t seen him for several years, but there is in me the hope that I will see him again. If we were to meet on the trail, we could pick up immediately where we left off, as if no time had passed.
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My red-head grandson, like all my grandchildren, is a friend-in-the-making. There are important respects in which we are not friends now. Adults have a certain authority over children that, for the children’s own good, they cannot lay aside. (Adults who try to be friends of children too easily slip into behaviors that harm children.) But in time—and it won’t be that long, actually—he will be an adult, and we can then be real friends, if we both want it.
Concerning the red-head boy that I saw in church: it seems God and he are already forming a friendship. If that sticks for both of us we will be friends someday, even though at present we don’t know each other. We will be friends because, at the end, all the friends of Jesus will be friends with all the friends of Jesus.
And the guy on the Katy trail? Since friendship is what human beings were made for, who knows? Maybe he too is a friend of Jesus.
God is always wanting to give us new friends.
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Announcing: The Fall Theology Lecture, Sunday, Oct. 27, “Walking the Camino: How and Why.” Twice now I have walked from Roncesvalles in Spain, a village just over the Pyrenees from France, to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. This route is a thousand years old, and millions of pilgrims have walked it, including today some hundreds of thousands every year. My lecture will address two basic questions. First, how does a person make this walk? What are the practicalities? How do you prepare physically and spiritually? And second, why would you want to walk to a place which is claimed to be the burial place of a saint? Isn’t God everywhere? What is the connection of holy places to our nature as animals that walk? Bishop Sumner will offer a response; there will be time for questions; and there will be a reception. 5 p.m. in the Great Hall at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas.
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Out & About: I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, on Sunday, Oct. 13. The Eucharists are at 9 and 11:15 a.m.
“Good Books & Good Talk” book seminar October 13: We’ll discuss Russell Kirk’s Gothic novel, Old House of Fear. The title refers to a castle on a purportedly haunted Scottish island. Anyone who reads the book is welcome to join; we meet from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Garrett Hall at St. Matthew’s. To enter: find St. Matthew’s on the box beside the door; then find receptionist; then ring.