20 May 2022
Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Jesus invites us into friendship. However, what really is a friendship with God? Benedict the XVI, in the forward to his first volume of Jesus of Nazareth wrote, “a dramatic situation for faith, because its point of reference is being placed in doubt: intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is in danger of clutching at thin air.” Our faith is dependent upon an intimate relationship with our savior Jesus Christ. Without friendship, our faith is nothing. How does any relationship start but with an encounter? Consider how any of your closest relationships began. What was the conversation, random interaction, or situation that facilitated the long-lasting and life-impacting relationship? In the same way, a friendship with Jesus Christ begins with an encounter. The Christian doctrine of grace makes clear that before we can love God, God’s love is necessarily primary. As Jesus tells his disciples, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” This grace begins in the Christian life at Baptism. The seed of faith planted at baptism then requires continual nourishment. Thus, prayer, rooted and grounded in the frequent reception of the Eucharist, is our response to the grace God provides to us. Again, like with any of our relationships, time and effort are required. By spending time with the Lord in prayer, even in conversations or “colloquys” as Ignatius of Loyola identifies, allows for what John Henry Newman described as a relationship when “heart speaks to heart”. An even deeper relationship occurs when we begin to conform our lives to the life of our beloved. Christ invites us, through his cross, into his abundant life. Can we participate fully in the divine friendship, laying our lives down for the care of others and following the commandments of the Lord? Let us love one another as friends of our Lord.