Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the things about this period is that we are all trapped with whomever it is that we are trapped! In our case, it has meant seven months non-stop with the boys. They are delighted to be spending all of their time with us, I assure you.

Of course, in any other time, when we were busy or traveling or the like we would miss them and the only thing we would want is to spend more time with them. That's the nature of relationships, isn't it? We get annoyed because our spouse bangs the metal spoon on the side of the pot whenever they stir anything. Shouting matches are on the verge of breaking out sometimes over who knows how to load the dishwasher. Why can't she or he just close the cabinet doors, or not put empty boxes back in the cupboard, or stop slamming doors?

Relationships are fraught with the crazy stuff that drives us all nuts sometimes. Then, while you drive home from the airport after saying goodbye, you miss them terribly. Then, after another business trip, you'd give anything to have them slamming doors or banging pots. Then, after we say goodbye for the last time, we don't quite know what to do with the silence, the stillness, and the emptiness that closes in.

For those who have lost someone close, there is no aggravation or annoyance they would not happily tolerate to have a few more minutes to talk about love, or forgiveness, or memories, or dreams. But while you are with them - trapped with them - forgiveness and love take a back seat! 

This all came to my heart as I was trying, very hard, not to tell our oldest to stop singing. He is singing so loudly! He is singing so much! I am trying to write, this very minute, while he sings. Loudly.

What is he singing though? He is singing Ave Verum Corpus. He is learning it in choir. The English translation is:

Hail,true body
born of the Virgin Mary,
Who truly suffered, sacrificed
on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed
with water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste
In the test of death.

Sometimes, amid the noise and closeness and cramped confines of life, amid its annoyances and rushed frustration, we hear something we need. We hear the voice of someone we love, annoying as they might be sometimes, reminding us of what is important. Reminding us that the Mary who held her son once would hold him again - Mary who held the babe would hold her savior at the last. We don't really know if Jesus ever annoyed Mary - or if he was too perfect for that. Perhaps he was perfectly annoying as a child! We do know that her life was shaped from the moment she knew she would bear him to the moment he took her home with him by their love for one another.

May we all be reminded, in the midst of our busyness, that the people we hold most closely are always trying to tell us something - we are always in the midst of learning patience, love, gentleness, and understanding. We are also always in the midst of saying goodbye - we are always on a journey. It is the companions who will give that journey its joys and, yes, its frustrations. But in our love for them and theirs for us we may find a foretaste of the love eternal that Christ has promised.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert