The Astonishing Wonder of Our Real and True Friend at Work

Last time we briefly discussed the subject of friends at work. While they're rare, there are times when we all could use a real friend in the workplace. Things go awry and unless we have a trusted colleague whom we can fully trust, we could use a shoulder if not to cry on, at least to lean on. We who are married can share our troubles with our wives, of course, but the timing isn't always good here. If they're home with the children, they're likely even more pressed than we are at work, and if they're in the workplace, well, they're not always able to respond to calls and texts that seek a bit of relief and encouragement.

Of course, we all have a real and true friend Who's always available. Sadly, the astonishing wonder of our friendship with Jesus escapes many of us. We might do well to read and think about these words of one of our great Catholic spiritual writers, Father Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R (1876-1945) as he imagines Our Lord speaking to each and every one of us. You might do well to read carefully and meditate for some time on Fathers words:

    “Loving soul! Have you ever heard, issuing from the Tabernacle, a secret and timid complaint from the divine prisoner? ‘Men treat Me with respect, rather than with love; of course, I accept their homage, but I thirst for their love, for with all their marks of deference, I feel in their midst, like a chief, whom they dread, or a monarch, whose power they fear. Scarcely anyone approaches Me, as an intimate friend, to enjoy my society, and pour forth his heart into Mine. What I long for is filial abandonment, tenderness, and intimacy, for I have a human heart. I want more confidence, more frank cordiality, so that My children should be more at their ease with Me. Oh! How it pains Me to feel Myself a stranger among My own family, in the midst of My children, for whom I have died and whom I feed with My own flesh and Blood! You, my child, give Me your love! I will widen the walls of your heart that your love may expand, almost to infinity, so that, through you, My voice may reach other souls. I want to gather around Me at this present time a group of devoted souls who will love Me without reserve and to whom My afflicted heart may pour out its disappointments. They need only love Me and I will take care of all their concerns. I want them for Myself, to do with them as I wish; they have only to love Me and abandon themselves to Me. They will constitute My family, My home, to which I shall retire when I feel a stranger amongst others. They will become My Bethany, where I shall go to take rest when fatigued, and to console Myself for the disloyalty of the majority of mankind. In return for their tenderness and delicate attentions, I will sanctify them, and associate them with My work of redemption. If there is anything which holds Me on this earth, and helps Me to bear, patiently, My sad loneliness in the tabernacle, it is their love, their prayers, and their sacrifices. 

    “’I am so constituted that I cannot refuse anything they ask. For these souls, who love Me sincerely, I would work stupendous miracles; I would create the world over again, and I would die a thousand times, in the same desolation and distress that I experienced on the cross. Oh! How I love these souls! They know it themselves, but they do not comprehend fully the extent of My tenderness for them. Give me such souls! On all occasions preach My love – to the learned, and to the ignorant, and even to the little children. The seed which your word sows shall not be lost; here and there, souls of good will shall rise up, and My grace will cause the seed to sprout; then the sun of My Charity will ripen it. Oh! How I long to be loved, and to be trusted as a friend!’”