Daily Thought For July 18, 2014

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Jesus & The Gift of Friendship

Supernatural charity strengthens and enriches friendship. The love of Christ makes us more humane; it gives us a greater capacity to understand and it makes us more open to everybody. In Christ, the best of all friends, we learn to strengthen a relationship that perhaps was beginning to weaken, to remove some obstacle, to overcome the tendency to slide into a state of cosy isolation. When we are close to Jesus we learn to be better, to bring the people around us to holiness, because we can offer them our faith in him. Just think how many people down the centuries have journeyed along the path of friendship in Our Lord's company! 
Look upon Christ. You know well that He counts you among his close friends. We are the friends of the bridegroom, and he calls us to share his favor and his possessions. The words of the Book of Sirach about friendship — there is nothing so precious as a faithful friend — acquire their full meaning when applied to Christ: He showed his faithfulness by giving his life for each of us. Let us learn from him to be friends to our friends, and let us not cease to give them the best thing we have — our love for Jesus. 
from In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez Volume Four p. 548


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