Remember that when Jesus receives word that his friend, “the one he loves,” is ill and approaching death, Jesus makes no attempt to rush to his side. We are privy only to a few of their conversations, the most poignant at the time of Lazarus’ death and resurrection. We are also not told explicitly that they were the only ones in that house, yet their home is referred to as that of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, who regularly provided hospitality to Jesus and whose company he clearly enjoys. We are not told any of the circumstances as to why these sisters and a brother are living together in what would be a highly unusual arrangement in that culture. We also see a special bond of loving friendship between Jesus and the family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Tradition has held that this was the only one of the Twelve not to die as a martyr. When Jesus basically tells them it is none of their business, the rumor begins that the beloved disciple will never die.
When Jesus offered Peter the threefold opportunity to profess his love for him after having three times denied him, and Jesus prophesied that Peter would one day be led where he didn’t want to go, some of the disciples pointed to the beloved and asked about him. This beloved disciple aroused some suspicion and jealousy among the others after the resurrection. The disciple whom Jesus loved remained close to Jesus and his mother at the foot of the Cross and was loved enough by Jesus to take on responsibility for his mother. But that understanding does not have to rule out that there was a disciple who was close enough to Jesus to recline on his chest at the Last Supper, be able to whisper a question into Jesus’ ear when prompted by the others to find out who the betrayer might be. What a beautiful thought and image for our spiritual life. Some scholars convincingly describe this unnamed disciple as a placeholder for each of us: we can all have that special and close relationship to Jesus. In the fourth gospel, which could very well be called the Gospel of love, the author is referred to simply as the Beloved Disciple. But the gospels do not hide that Jesus loved some in a particular way. Although unmarried himself, Jesus did enter into loving friendships. He taught clearly about the permanence of the marital commitment. We would call him “pro-marriage,” as we can see from the first sign that he performs in the context of a wedding, and the frequent references to weddings as an image of the kingdom of God. He did not seek an exclusive relationship of love with another human person. The perfect revelation of the Father’s love in the flesh did not himself enter into marriage. Jesus, according to the witness of the gospels, was unmarried. Religious and priestly vocations, for centuries, have found that fulfillment in community and friendship. But since the church has always seen marriage as a vocation, a call, and not one for everyone, there are other ways of fulfilling that need for companionship and reciprocal love.
Traditional marriage is the way that need is fulfilled for Adam, according to Genesis, forming a partnership with one who is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh that provides both companionship and the possibility of procreation. Companionship, partnership, a sharing among equals, the sacrificial love of serving another before caring for one’s self are all good for human beings. Adalbert Cemetery, Milwaukee.In one of the first instructions that God gives humanity in the written form of revelation, in the Book of Genesis, is that it is not good for man, for the human person, to be alone.
Mary Anthony Kubat, CSSF, is also survived by nieces, nephews and his Franciscan community.Ī funeral Mass was Sept. Switanowski, the brother of Victoria Rewiako-Smiley and dear friend of Sr. Josaphat in Milwaukee and as director of formation for Franciscan students at St. As a priest, he served in various parish assignments in the dioceses of Detroit, Peoria, Rockford and at Marytown in Libertyville, Ill., and as a confessor at the Vatican. He entered the Franciscans as a religious brother in 1969, and was ordained a priest later in life, in 1990. Switanowski was born in 1950 in Detroit to Henry and Josephine Switanowski. Bonaventure Province of the Conventual Franciscans, formerly of Peoria, Ill., died Sept. Robert Joseph Switanowski, OFM Conv., a priest of the Chicago-based St.
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