This is one of the most remarkable things Jesus said, I think. It comes up in the gospel for the sixth Sunday of Easter. “I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (Jn. 15:15). It’s even a little more extraordinary. The word John used is not really servants. It is slaves. In Jesus, we have gone from slaves to friends, and not just anyone’s friends. God’s friends.
I lost a dear friend this week, Jon Bruno. I knew him first as the Bishop of Los Angeles. He and I came to be bishops the same year, now over 20 years ago. Over the years, our friendship went beyond being bishops. Greatly. Much of what I know about friendship, especially friendship with God, I learned from Jon.
Jon was also a great friend of Love Must Act and is largely responsible for getting us funded in the very beginning. He has continued to be a supporter over the years, and when we feared what effect the pandemic might have on efforts to keep Holy Cross School in South Africa funded last year, once again, Jon was there.
I want to share some of what I learned from Jon about being friends with God. Someone told a story at Jon’s funeral on Saturday about one of many harrowing rides with Jon driving. On this particular ride, Jon did a sudden U-turn, which was not unusual. He was under a bridge, many of which in Los Angeles being homeless campsites. It seems Jon had seen someone he knew. He jumped out of the car without explanation to his passengers, called a name, and embraced the friend who responded. And he left something for the friend to make things at least a little better (there were innumerable stories told involving that commonality). That is most certainly what it is to be God’s friend. In fact, the poorer your friend, the closer to God you get. Jon knew that.
And Jon didn’t much care who might not like it. Not everyone was always happy to hear from Jon. It is because Jon never let his bishop friends forget about being God’s friend in all its uncomfortable reality. Maybe that’s why the Church, which he loved deeply, did not always respond the same way. It mattered not in Jon’s Ignatian spirituality whether he was loved. What mattered was that he loved. And he most certainly did.
Love is everything. The gospel for this week uses the word at least nine times (I may have lost count). The reading from the First Letter of John appointed for this week uses it another five times. Love is obviously a big theme, really the main one, of the New Testament. Jon most certainly knew that. That’s why I’m sure, if God ever had a friend, it was Jon Bruno. He revealed what the master is doing as well as anyone I ever knew.
I’m betting Jon made enough other friends for God that, in the end, all will indeed be well. At least I’m going to try and be one.
Agape,
Bishop Stacy Sauls
Founder and President
Love Must Act