God Centered Friendships

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to get together with a group of my high school friends.  I keep in contact with two of them on a regular basis, but the others I hadn’t talked to in several years.  It was a joy to be with them, and I’m sorry that I don’t work hard enough on maintaining my relationships with each of them.

Nonetheless, it was great just hanging out, sharing a meal and fond memories of times gone by.  Of course, we’re all in middle age now, and our lives are not what they once were.  How I choose my friends is different now, and I thought this reflection found in Grace In Every Season by Catherine Doherty is a reflection of those choices, and it’s worth sharing with you.

Let us think a little about friendship.  Christ said in a beautiful and heart-warming sentence, “I will not call you servants any more; I will call you friends.”  Christ, in many ways, calls us to a friendship with himself!  So, friendship is a good thing, and God wants our friends to be gentle, joyful and quiet companions for us.

True friendship can easily be defined by analyzing its goal.  If you make friends with someone for your own ends, it is the wrong kind of friendship.  In fact, it is no friendship at all.  It is latching onto someone for your own selfish purposes.  For instance, you are lonely and “no one understands you,” so you just want to gripe about many things to a particular person.

If, on the other hand, you become friends with a person in order to help each other to God, if you become friends, in a mutually give-and-take spirit, then it is a good friendship.  If you have something to share mutually a love of painting or nature, for instance it is a wonderful friendship.

But remember, be open and always ready and eager to include someone else in your activities as well.  Friendships should be the natural outcome of caritas, of love.  Consider each one.  Is it “I” centered, selfish?  Or is it God-centered and hence unselfish? Good friendships are unselfish and open to others, sharing common interests and all that is good.

:)Have a great weekend 🙂