2022-09-14 A Meditation on Companionship

“And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” (Mk 6:7 ESV)

Mano to mano, hand to hand, brother to brother, sister to sister; on some level, we are fortified by the companionship with others. We have healthy desire thus to be companioned. We avoid ill company that breeds bad morals. We are those simple in living and do warm to each other. Two can do things with a force field, a supernatural or gifted togetherness. Together, we are the cause and dynamic that does shape the world around us. Together, we are of a truth not self seeking, but live for the others around us, for that one, for that partner and peer in companionship.

So others have believed in us. Others have made time in their day to hang with us, to chow down some meals, simply to coexist and be, simply to derive some untold and mysterious pleasure from the companionship of a friend. Is this saying too much? Is it too much to speak of the wanton heart settling instead into good company, no longer aimless nor meandering, but excited today, while it is still day, to hear from someone else, to be invited out to something, or just to coexist in the by-and-by? So we serve for one another. We accomplish things with the attitudinal mystery, the cipher, of a fellowship. Man to man, woman to woman, each to the other, we are heroes for those whom this day we have chosen to love or—let us use another word—to reconcile with and knit our hearts to.

This day we have chosen to be their near friend. This day we have seen untold capacity of a duo, untold majesty of a paired visage, untold grandeur of two faces with gladness on them. We know our sins, and also we know our, what others would call, foolish self-giving and companioning. We have no calculations nor utility of this our peer, but are entered in and complicit. We can do together what no one thinking just of their own well-being can do.

Time tells of the hero in the midst of a company, who beats out his friendly peers to do the servant deed, to be the sacrifice, to give unconditionally. So we honor such women and such men, glad to joke that—yes—they won the race to that elusive front, they won the giving mode, to them we say “Well done!”, and reflect that it was no coveted role, though each of us longs to be heroic. On some level then we are each at a hypothetical level of self-giving; we each go with the movement and the currents, but also we do stem the sickness (2 Sa 24:25), turn back the wrath (Nu 25:11), go against the easy come easy go complicity.

Indeed, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”” (1 Co 15:33). We have a nagging sense of not wanting to go down certain routes that these our companions and fellows start to go down. Yet we also know the spirit of what has been given us, and that no sin can separate us from the love of Christ. So the reluctant sinner is also the forgiven sinner, and the influencer perhaps another time. That is, let us give thanks for fellowship prior to regretting its forms and manners. But let us too know Holy rest, solitude, prepping our hearts the more to appreciate when company of any sort is at hand. In this appreciation we warm to one another, and do step down from our proud days to be companion and friend.