“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (1 Pe 1:3–12 ESV)

Contagious versus transitive: “you’ve met Christ, I’ve met you, therefore I’ve met Christ” is transitive. “You run such-and-such, I am your elder, therefore I own the kit and caboodle” is transitive. Contagious, on the other hand, speaks of a whispered Truth, personally Meaningful to each and every Comer, degrees of separation not the same thing as carte blanche equal signs or equational thinking. Degrees of separation being the fact, each and every Comer applies and reapplies for a Rumored Truth, a Passed-On Veracity, a Personal Significance. More, the “line item” on the balance sheet of “I am your elder” or of “you run such-and-such”, ceases to have the same tempting monetary value. Because we are swept up in the Contagious, in Stories of Christ’s exaltation in the Good Name of our Forgiveness. In no “owners” nor “field masters”, but Near Spirits, another avenue called Excitement.

It would be insane Not to claim hegemony or authority in someone else’s name. Notwithstanding, like a good uniform or tailored, couture dress, a fashioning of the Homestead, an outfitting of the Man or Woman, it was designed for blustery Visibility, but a visibility non-transitive. It ain’t so simple as simply being a near associate, in the right place at the right time.

Because the sky is the limit, our cues, the streetcorner Vision or the homestead under Divine Umbrella, are cues most Salvific: strange Seasons of Life, the lean years and the mighty years, the Call to some deeply-beheld Arms, called Life, called Withstood (the trauma withstood), called Holy.

If you know the Son, you know the Father. More, if they would not believe when the Bible and prophets were given them, then they will not believe were one to rise from the dead (Luke 16:31). The flipside to a contagious reality, is that we can begin once again to assemble our Transitivity: the apostles and prophets giving each listener the Right to a personal relationship. “I know Christ, you just met me, you know Christ.”

The litany, then, of Friendlies, the mocking puzzlement: why was this one Chosen? Why no one just picked up the phone to say, “Listen to him, to her”. Why we are seeing saints beleaguered and tried, accused and in permanent Recovery status. Why, if there is some “password” to open the gates of Continued Life in the community, we are ever taught the password is anything more than Christ My Savior. Some things are Transitive. But the boots on the ground Frontliners know the Father’s, the Drill Sergeant’s as well, personal Care and personal Life on the Line for them. So we are doubly reassured, even as our own Character and Mettle assures us: we are those willing to make the Ultimate. But more, surprise, here, Christ literally wants to “go there” for us. He literally umpteenth degree loves us. We literally are more than simply mensches for Confronting Death, but are gently assured and childlike Beloveds. Oh, and suddenly we want it all again. We want the Life Springing Eternal. We have a few phone calls we’d like to make ‘round here. Do indulge us with another Day on this Green Earth!

To be grateful in all occasions where Peace transpires, is simply to have tasted of War, and though lightyears apart from each other, the Friendlies, the Identified Friends, still do give pause (“Don’t ruin the cipher! Don’t draw attention to the Beauty!”) as we meditate on all scenarios where the lawsuit is so absent, blissfully Absent. Those Friendlies we literally know through and through and, although War be with two foes who have professional respect for each other (at times), we refuse to concede Any diagonal, and Division with the Friends. People willingly Sacrifice for one good point made in community; we try and make Ten.