I'm not an artist and don't hang around artists. I write, but I don't get together with other writers either. The only thing in my life these days that really seems to matter is following Christ and submitting to His will. Much of that walk is unaccompanied, but I am always scanning the horizon to meet other followers of the Way to be fortified by, and to fortify if need be.
Do you know what my favorite Mystery of the rosary to meditate on is? It is the Visitation. Why? I've often wondered that myself. I've never been pregnant. I don't have cousins I'm close with. But there is something about the scene and motivation of Mary, pregnant with the Savior, who set off "in great haste" (Lk 1:39) over 80 miles on foot (pregnant!) to pay her relative Elizabeth a visit right after the Annunciation. Who can she share with about this unbelievable event? Who is going to "get it?" It is a moving communion scene when Mary arrives--Elizabeth cannot contain her joy and "cries out in a loud voice" while Mary's soul exaults and her spirit rejoices in God. Mary stays three months, presumably until John is born.
In our lives, as we get older, our friends--the ones we trust, the ones to whom we share with deeply and intimately--tend to thin out. If we have one or two, we should count ourselves fortunate. Many do not have even that. In a religion such as Catholicism, that preaches unpopular truths, these genuine friendships in faith can be a much-needed balm for weary travelers following the Way.
When I meet another Christ-follower on the road who "gets it," who wants the same thing for themselves and their family--holiness, living for God alone, to love and serve Him exclusively--I feel a deep joy. It doesn't come right away, but only after a gentle dance together to test each other's steps, to see if the other can complete them, not unlike those early Christians who clandestinely celebrated a common brotherhood on the road by, as the story goes, "completing the fish":
"Greeks, Romans, and many other pagans used the fish symbol before Christians. Hence the fish, unlike, say, the cross, attracted little suspicion, making it a perfect secret symbol for persecuted believers. When threatened by Romans in the first centuries after Christ, Christians used the fish mark meeting places and tombs, or to distinguish friends from foes. According to one ancient story, when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company."
Once a comradeship is established, it affords an opportunity to "talk shop." From the outside this can look like Catholic nerd speak, but among believers, it is a moment of reloading magazines, comparing maps, and exchanging messages while in asylum.
"I'm in need of a miracle for my sister in law, but I don't have nine days." Have you tried Mother Teresa's emergency novena? My visa wasn't going to arrive in time and she came through for me.
"My scapular is wearing thin, and I'm almost out of Miraculous Medals. Do you know someone who can wholesale? We've given out a lot this month." Yes, I know a guy, he's got nine kids and runs a distribution center out of his garage in Cleveland, faithful guy...
Etc.
Saints are both idealists and realists--they realize that they are incapable of anything apart from God, and yet trust in His ability to do great things, miraculous things, in the world and in their lives and the lives of others. They realize that sanctification comes as much through the daily faithful observance of mundane works of cleaning toilets and restocking shelves as it does through the loftier occasions of consolation and communion in prayer and contemplation. They realize their cross is a "reservation for one," and yet with the communion of saints and those who have gone before whom they can call upon anywhere at any time, they are never really alone.
When you start walking the difficult and lonely path and meet a sincere fellow believer on the way, don't pass him by without an embrace and an encouragement, after he proves himself trustworthy. It may be for you or for him or for the two of you, but in pagan land, we can't afford to travel alone, since "two are better than one...if one falls, the other can pick his companion up" (Ecc 4:9). Stop and talk shop, exchange notes, reload each others sacramentals, and pray for one another--you are soldiers heading to the same destination over the same treacherous terrain. Let the theologians and the doctors discuss Form and Structure and Meaning. You in the trenches? You figure out who sells the cheap turpentine, and go get it. There's work to do.
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