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Good morning.

Today is the feast-day of St. Simeon the Elder.

Born in 390, Simeon, , took social distancing to an extreme, as he spent much of his life living on top of a stylus or pillar, in the desert near Aleppo in Syria.

That’s why he is more commonly known as Simeon the Stylite

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At Ìý18, he entered a monastery.

But soon his zeal for self-denial alarmed the other monks

and he was asked to tone it down a bit or leave the monastery.

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He chose to leave and lived apart from the world of his day in various places.

But crowds started to follow him to listen to his teaching

so he decided to seek solitary refuge in a cell on top of a pillar.

He spent 47 years living on various pillars,

the tallest of which may have been over fifty feet from the ground.

Simeon spent much of his life living physically above the world of his day,

but he was not entirely cut off from it.

The crowds still gathered beneath his pillar.

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Simeon reminds us of the need to keep a balance between our spirituality

and the gritty realities of the world around us, or as in his case, below us.

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The Bible provides no justification for a neglecting the world around us,

or for distancing ourselves from the suffering of its people.

For God so loved the world, in all its mess and pain,

that he entered completely into its life, in the person of Jesus Christ:

And for all who seek to follow Jesus,

Ìýhis command is clear:

Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbour [PB1]Ìýas yourself –

Ìýeven if you have to socially distance from them for a time.

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Lord, help us to follow your example of loving service and give us vision to see and to help our neighbour, whoever they may be. AMEN.

Ìý[PB1]I think this amusing misquote may offend some! Doesn’t it make sense just as well to preserve the original wording?