"Here we are, you and I, and I hope that Christ makes a third with us." These words of Saint Aelred, whom we celebrate today, remind us of his certainty that in his experience of relationship, Christ was ever present. Indeed, Christ Jesus is never ever in competition with his creation. God is Love; love is one. And so Jesus is truly with us in all of our loving interconnectedness. Aelred will at last declare, “God is friendship.”
When at last we realize that we ourselves are loved beyond all measure by God, we want to respond in love with our whole heart. Aelred understands well that this relationship of love will heal us. He says, "No medicine is more valuable, none more efficacious, none better suited to the cure of our temporal ills than a friend to whom we may turn for consolation in time of trouble, and with whom we may share happiness in time of joy.”
Image of Saint Aelred from an early Cistercian manuscript.
When at last we realize that we ourselves are loved beyond all measure by God, we want to respond in love with our whole heart. Aelred understands well that this relationship of love will heal us. He says, "No medicine is more valuable, none more efficacious, none better suited to the cure of our temporal ills than a friend to whom we may turn for consolation in time of trouble, and with whom we may share happiness in time of joy.”
Image of Saint Aelred from an early Cistercian manuscript.
