“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”
John 15: 12-17
Friends are gifts from Jesus. And friends who are rooted in Christ? Those relationships are a whole other level of beautiful.
When I think of my friends, I think of the people here on earth who I can call and text at any given moment. Because, well, that’s who our friends are. The ones who celebrate our birthdays with us as much as we hate them, the ones who go with you to get ice cream because you really, really need it, and the ones who hold you when you’re just so very heartbroken.
That’s friendship. It’s kind of hard to define, because it encompasses everything.
On the retreat that I run for my job, we have a talk called “Friendship with Christ.” It’s always been my personal favorite. Now, don’t get me wrong: the other talks are endlessly important and life-changing. They talk about our faith and Jesus in ways that we need to hear about the most. But this is the talk that makes my heart happy, because it’s about my best friend. It’s crazy to think of the man who died on the cross as your friend. But if there’s one kind of love that I’ve appreciated most, it’s friendship; I believe it is (or should be) at the root of all relationships. And if there’s one person who I love the most, it’s Jesus, Who I also believe is at the root of all (my) relationships. So to put them together?
It’s just…
:))
So, Jesus Christ. Your Lord, your Savior, your King, your Redeemer, your Creator, your God, your Father, your source of hope, love, and faith. He’s your shepherd Who chases you when you run away, no matter how far you go. He’s the person Who you live for, the man Who died and rose from the dead for you, carrying the weight of every single sin of yours and the billions of other people who have and will ever exist… your friend?
Crazy. It seems so mundane, and truthfully, a little demeaning. Of all those roles, of all those deeds, of all of Who Jesus is… friend?
Yes.
And it’s a friendship like no other.
I have met dozens of Catholics who refuse to see Him this way; I understand their rationale. Someone who is so grand, so eternal, so immaculate… and He’s reduced to a friend?
I think that’s the part of Jesus that so many other Christians get, and the part I wish more Catholics would seek to understand. Catholics think (and I’ve heard similar analogies way too many times), “He’s, well, Jesus. He’s the popular kid at school that we admire from afar. The cool kid we’ll never be like. The president of our class Who makes all these changes, and they help me, sure. But I can’t possibly ever know Him as a friend. He’s unreachable in this way.”
So, let’s get one thing straight: Jesus is really cool. But He’s not unreachable. The obvious: we have the Sacraments. And we as Catholics have them. It’s the perfect set of 7 gifts. Another obvious way? Prayer. It’s simple. It’s our way of talking to Jesus. Even with these ways, we have this illusion that Christ stops at His sacrifice on the cross. This mentality is entirely missing out on everything else He is. Look at the Bible! He sought people. He spoke to them. He listened to them. He healed them. He loved them. He even had friends – because in His humanity (which we often forget), He was well, human. And humans have friends. And we can be His, since I’m assuming you’re a human.
I encourage the kids at my job all the time to see Him this way. I heard that talk on the retreat I was a participant on back in 2013 (and now, in case you didn’t know, I now run the entire ministry department at that church. Read about it in my bio here). The whole concept of being reunited to my faith hadn’t fully hit me yet, but I remember one of my adult leaders at the time standing up there, so passionate, and I was awestruck. Jesus? A friend? Turns out, this was the first way I actually, in my teenage and young adult life, came to know Jesus: as my friend. It felt safe. It was familiar. And it gave me hope that Christ is reachable.
When I felt abandoned, hopeless, lost, insecure, and angry at the world around me, I made a new friend. And we’ve had our rough patches, believe me. I’ve fought with Him a lot (and thankfully, I always lose). But this reality of having Christ as my friend helped build up to the (very important and eternally true) reality that He’s so much more than that. My relationship with Him is a friendship like no other.
To ignore His friendship (in my life) meant that I was closing the door to everything else He is. Ignoring His friendship meant that I wasn’t accepting His own message: to lay down your life for a friend. And He did that for me. So for me, and many others I know, to accept Jesus, I had to accept Him as a friend first. Then, I could understand that friendship, so very undefinable, is actually definable as loving one another and making sacrifices… of which Christ made the ultimate one.
You know how people start off as acquaintances? And then those friends you see only because you have other friends who know them? And then, you exchange social media accounts, maybe a phone number early on if you’re lucky? And you’ll keep talking in your group, actually exchange phone numbers (or shoot them a text if you had their number before), see each other one-on-one, and then you’ll actually call them your friend?
And then, they become family, bridesmaids and groomsmen, that mom-friend? Godparents to your babies? The one who gets ice cream with you because you absolutely need it? The one who lets you cry without interruption? That friend? The one you can’t live without because you’re just… more than friends? Not even best friends, but family? Connected at the soul? Sure. Yes.
That’s how it was for me and Jesus. And since He started out as my friend, I’ve been able to fully accept Him as more: my Lord, my Savior, my Father… my everything. My best friend. And I’m His friend, too.
On my good and bad days, the days when I don’t feel like talking or praying, He’s still there. I cry to Him, I praise Him, I receive Him and His mercy and graces through the sacraments, I read scripture… I get to know Him. I spend time with Him.
He’s my best friend. That’s what friends do.
I encourage you to really start to seek Him in a way that you haven’t before. Get to know the part of Christ that you’re afraid of, or don’t know much about. If you have Him as your friend, find Him in the sacraments. If you only see Him at Mass, find Him in creation. Do something that pushes you out of your comfort zone to grow deeper in union with Him. This post is really about my journey with Him. Whether you relate or not, know that each relationship with Him is so unique and different; He rejoices in yours with Him!
Christ as my friend. It’s a friendship like no other. It’s the part of Him that reminds me every single day that He is relatable and accessible. My friendship with Him is the part of Him that is constantly with me, every single moment. I cannot receive the Eucharist every second, or always make it to mass on days that aren’t a Sunday, or even sit and formally pray. But I can talk to my friend at any moment. And at all moments, His friendship is the part that reminds me His is walking with me, always.
He’s only a prayer away.
And that’s a friendship like no other.
:))
