True Friendship
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Sirach advises us on friendship today. He points out that the test of a true friend are trials of adversity – what we might call the rainy days of our lives. Through distress, quarrels, sorrows, and misfortune we can find who is a true friend and who isn’t. We can also find out in such situations whether we are anybody’s real friend or not. Whether we are tried and true or merely the fair-weather type, do we bug out when things get rough?
It has been said that if you have one really good friend in your old age consider yourself wealthy. I venture to say that if we are anyone else’s really good friend as we pass through the years of our lives we are wealthy too. For to be a real friend to anyone must mean that within us somewhere God can be found. And what greater wealth can anyone possess than God! There is no friendship without God; there is probably no God in a person who is unwilling to be a friend to at least one other person.
Some dangers to friendship are possessiveness and smothering. We might find ourselves not wanting to share a friend’s time and presence with anyone else. We might try to run a friend’s life. Freedom must exist in friendship for it to last - freedom to come and go at will, freedom to be with others and do things for others. Sharing friends might not be easy, but it is necessary if we wish to have and retain true friends.
Always remember: A friend is a gift from God, a value beyond estimation, a taste of heaven come to earth. I pray that the experience is yours. May you always receive true friendship, may you allow God to help you give it to others.
