Friendship: With Friends Like These

"Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul." - St. John Bosco


The saddest thing I've ever had to know took place in my first semester of college. Yes, you new freshman read right; my first semester of college. That seemingly magical time when you're meeting all sorts of new people, new personalities, new thoughts and lifestyles, new creeds, new friends and, unfortunately, new people who would rather not be anywhere near you. One of the sad facts is that, especially in this first new time, they're pretty interchangeable. The drama from high school might be over, but the new stuff is even worse. It's the toughest part of going into college, more so than any class, even organic chemistry and molecular biology! The saddest thing was not having true friends, friends in love with the Lord Jesus, near me, pushing me. Those who had been in the beginning either left His love later on or simply gave up.

But this isn't meant in anyway way to create worry, anxiety, or distress! In fact, the message is quite the opposite!

With every new step in life come new friends, new people to open ourselves to, which should of course entail opening our faith and hope and love of Christ to them. Perhaps they might not accept it, or maybe they might be lukewarm about it and not really care much. Or perhaps they are seeking after truth right when you meet them, and they'd like to know more! Maybe, by the grace of God, you've just met someone or will meet someone soon who is already totally in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, someone who can help you and you can help them grow closer and closer to Him. God works in mysterious ways, and the friends we have share in that work, and we for them.

The challenge is in finding those friends lastly described above, those companions who will never abandon us to fear and despair. The true friends are like Samwise Gamgee, refusing to let us fall, carrying us to where we need to go when we can't walk there ourselves, loving us as God loves us by sacrificing their own time and talents, themselves, for our sake, and we need to do the same for our friends, as well as our enemies. St. Thomas Aquinas once said, "There is nothing on this earth to be more prized than true friendship." If you look at the saints, they all had true friends who pushed them, who helped them walk, who carried them closer to Christ. St. Francis had St. Dominic as his companion, St. Augustine had friends like St. Ambrose and St. Possidius who helped him come to Christ, and in fact it was St. Ambrose who baptized St. Augustine and his son!

Seek after the people who God is trying to make more important in your life, those Godly companions who will remain with you through the trials, who will help carry you to Christ, who will help you carry your cross, who will push you and rebuke you because of their desire to see you perfected in Christ the Lord. And, of course, do the same for them, love them like God loves them, for Christ told the Apostles, "I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." (John 15:15)

St. Edith Stein - "On the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is the end already, since God is love."

Sts. Augustine, Ambrose, Possidius, Thomas Aquinas, Francis, and Dominic, please pray for us all, that we may all find, keep, and love the companions the Lord God has sent and will send us!

Readers, please pray for the writers of this page! Thank you!