Deacon Doug and I are big fans of movie soundtracks. The orchestral music that plays during movies is usually very evocative, and some soundtracks are so recognizable that you know the movie right away.
I especially love the music from The Lord of the Rings. There is a song called ‘Concerning Hobbits’ that we initially hear when we see Hobbiton for the first time. Its warm tones feature a beautiful fiddle melody that evokes for me the warmth and closeness of the hobbit community. And this tune is a theme that recurs throughout the Trilogy. Specifically, it comes to symbolize the growing friendship between two of the hobbits, Sam and Frodo, arguably the central characters of The Lord of the Rings.
Throughout the films, we see the friendship and loyalty of Sam and Frodo. Even though it is challenged at different points during the movie, ultimately, it is the strength of their friendship that helps Frodo complete his seemingly impossible task of destroying the ring of power. I love the camaraderie between these two characters.
There is a point where Frodo is so overpowered by the evil of the ring he has chosen to bear that He is about to kill Sam, but doesn’t. He falls back, and says, “I can’t do this, Sam.” Then Sam tells him, “I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.”
Sam continues: “Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”
Frodo asks, “What are we holding on to, Sam?” And he replies: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”
These kinds of scenes just get you. They pull on your heart strings. These characters, in the moment, give us a window into the power of true friendship. Sam’s friendship and support of Frodo, even right after he tried to kill him, is what shows Frodo the truth that there is good left in the world, good worth fighting for. Friendship, true friendship, reminds us of God’s closeness, because God desires friendship with us.
It’s a strange thing for us to think about–God being our friend. It is easy to talk about Jesus being our king, our savior, our Lord. And He is all of those things. But He also came to be our friend, because He loves each of us intensely. The Greeks recognized four different types of love, and these four different facets of love help us to understand how we are called into communion with God. The highest type of love is Agape: the perfect, self-outpouring love which gives everything to the beloved. This is the type of love whom God Himself is, as a Trinity of Three Persons totally given to each other in love. But there is also Storge, which is the love of familiar things like family members, or familiar places like our parish. We can sense the closeness of God when we come home. This is Storge at work. Then there is Eros. This is the romantic love which binds together spouses in marriage. In a spiritual sense, this type of love reminds us of the passionate and utterly faithful love that God has for us as members of the Church, which is His bride. Today, we get a window into the fourth type of love, Philia, the love between close friends. This type of love is what gives the city of Philadelphia its name: the city of brotherly love. The love between friends is most powerful not when it turns them toward each other, but when it turns them together toward a common goal. This is why we’re inspired by friendships like that between Sam and Frodo, where they are united in their quest to defeat evil and restore some good to the world.
We see friendship at work in our readings today. The first reading shows that beautiful example of friendship between Moses, Aaron and Hur. Aaron and Hur came up the mountain with Moses to support him as his friends. They were all united in the common goal of restoring freedom to the people of Israel, who were struggling against the threat of the foreign king, Amalek. Aaron and Hur saw that if Moses kept his hands raised in prayer, Israel did better in the fight. But Moses’ arms grew weary. So Aaron and Hur held up his arms for him and even gave Moses a place to be seated. Thus, Israel won the victory that day.
Here we can see how powerful filial love is, the love between friends. When that love is focused on God and His will, victory happens. This deeper reality of the love between Moses and his friends Aaron and Hur is what helped bring victory that day, rather than some magical power that Moses’ arms had in swaying the battle one way or the other. On the surface, it would be easy to misjudge the story in that way, to think of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses arms and then using them like magic wands, saying, “Boom, take that, Amalekites!” But that isn’t the point at all. The point is they were all focused on the same goal, the freedom of Israel to worship the true God. Aaron and Hur supported Moses when he grew weary, so that this reality could come to pass by God’s power. The friendship between those three is a window into the filial love, the friendship that God has with all of His people, through which He supports us in all of our difficulties.
We see this in the negative sense in the parable Jesus tells us today about the persistent woman and the corrupt judge. Jesus describes a woman who is persistent in seeking the justice she knew she deserved with regard to her enemy. In the parable, her persistence wears down the unjust judge, who finally renders a fair verdict in her case. Jesus wants us to understand how much more our persistent prayer bends the very heart of God our Heavenly Father, the friend of our souls who desires every good thing for us and wants to support us in our journey of life! Jesus is reminding us of the importance of persistence in the context of the loving friendship which is a key part of being a disciple.
Is it hard for you to think of God as your friend? Listen to the beautiful words of St. Theresa of Avila: “If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight.” Jesus came not only to be our savior, but also our friend. He knows the things that discourage us in our daily lives. He knows what our dreams and desires are for the future, and it is His joy to walk with us and help us toward a future full of hope. And as a friend, He invites us to lean on Him when difficulties come. This gives us the strength we need to just put one foot in front of the other. We persist in prayer not because somehow we want to magically control God and make Him do our bidding, but because we know God walks with us as a friend and strong support. Even if our prayers aren’t answered the way we think they should be, we can fall back on our trust that God loves us. Not only as our King, but also as our most intimate friend. He will never abandon us, and He looks forward to the day where He will rejoice with us; when every tear is wiped away and all suffering is ended!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son as our Savior and friend. Jesus, we do trust in you. Help us to know of your closeness, both in times of joy and in times of sorrow and distress. Help us to trust in your Divine friendship. Holy Spirit, strengthen our hearts to respond to the friendship of Jesus by focusing on where the Father is leading us in our lives and working with Jesus to get us there. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +