Easter 6 - A True Friend of Jesus

 

Homily for Easter 6

May 5, 2024

A True Friend of Jesus

 

            The great St. John Bosco, who spent his life working to bring the youth of Turin to Christ, had many enemies among the atheists and freethinkers of 1800s Italy. They saw Christianity as a backwards superstition, and so they wanted to destroy the Church at all costs, even if it meant taking out this Catholic priest who was so effective at saving souls. So St. John Bosco frequently had to be careful with people he didn’t know.

            One day, two men came to Fr. Bosco’s school, begging him to come and anoint a dying man. Bosco had his suspicions, but also knew that he couldn’t refuse if the request was real. So he agreed to come along – only if he could bring some of his older students with him. He went into the classroom and said, “I need to anoint a dying man, but this might be a dangerous trap for me. Will any of you be willing to come with me?”

            Without hesitation, one of his most loyal pupils, John Cagliero, volunteered to accompany him – along with a few others. They began to set off, but the men who initially made the request objected, saying, “We will accompany you alone – we don’t want to concern the sick person with too many people in the sick-room.” Bosco refused, saying, “My students accompany me wherever I go.”

            So they arrived at the house – which turned out to be a tavern. The boys stayed outside while Bosco went in and asked them, “Where is the dying man?” But the men who summoned him said, “We’ll get there in a moment, but let’s first have a drink before we go up.”

            Bosco refused, knowing what was up. But the men became hostile, insisting that they drink. They handed him a glass of wine, which he noticed had been poured from a special bottle. They offered a toast together, and everyone else drank, but Bosco put his down without tasting.

            “You insult us by not drinking with us,” they said angrily, while the other patrons of the tavern began to gather around and surround the holy priest.

            “Fine, fine,” he replied, picking up the glass as if to drink…but he then threw it on the ground and dashed for the door. Upon opening the door, his loyal students entered, glowering and threatening the evil men.

            Seeing the six strong students who had his back, the men admitted to their ruse and allowed John Bosco to go home unharmed.

            What a blessing to have a loyal friend! Think about the great loyal friendships in our stories – Frodo had Sam in Lord of the Rings…Batman had Robin…Shrek had his donkey…what is Andy Griffith without Barney Fife, or Winnie the Pooh without Piglet? “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter,” says the Word of God, “One who finds one, finds a treasure.”

            So when Jesus calls us His friends, He is calling us to a similar intimacy and loyalty to Him. Notice that all of these loyal friends play the supporting role, but are blessed to share the adventure with the lead character and share the rewards with them. They have to sacrifice for the main character, but they also experience an intimacy with him. Likewise, our lives – and indeed, all of human history – has only one main character, which is Jesus Christ. But we play a powerful supporting role, as we make Him known and loved, and we share the adventure of the salvation of souls and the advancement of His Kingdom. We sacrifice for Him, but He also shares with us the riches of His grace.

            Those examples of friendship I mentioned before are characterized by loyalty to the point of sacrificing for the main character. Likewise, our friendship with Christ ought to be constantly saying, “Lord, I will do whatever You ask of me.” Perhaps that means being generous with your family size; maybe it means saying a generous “yes” if you sense a calling to the priesthood or to become a nun; maybe it means being available to Christ to evangelize and speak about Him to your family and friends, inviting them to church with you. A true friend is loyal to the point of sacrifice!

            So how do we obtain a friendship with Jesus? Psychologists note that there are three elements of any friendship, all of which apply to our friendship with Jesus Christ. First, at its basic level, friendship is based upon mutual shared experiences. Think about the friendships we had as kids: we were friends with this other kid because we both like to play with Legos or we liked playing baseball. Applying this to our relationship with Christ, we should definitely have shared experiences with Him – inviting Him into every aspect of our lives. There is a young man who is on the path to being named a saint, a young Spanish teen named Faustino Perez, who used to write in his spiritual journal about his conversations with Christ. One time he wrote, “After receiving Communion, I spoke with Christ for ten minutes about the recent soccer game that we won, 6-0.” That is sharing our experiences with Christ!

            But a second element of any human friendship is that we share our inner thoughts and feelings with the other. I may like to be in a bowling league with buddies, but it’s not a very deep friendship until we start talking about deeper stuff – our hopes and dreams, our fears and our joys, our struggles and our blessings. A friendship with Christ is similar – we have to move beyond reciting “Our Fathers” and “Hail Marys” to an actual sharing of what’s going on in our life with Jesus. St. John Newman defined prayer as cor ad cor loquitor – heart speaks to heart. Jesus, I’m really worried about X, but I have seen Your faithfulness since You have blessed me with Y. I bring You this care or concern, I rejoice in this or that, I praise You for who You are.

            Finally, psychologists identify the deepest element of a friendship: having a similar view of the world. Closest friends share similar values and a common purpose in life. We experience that with the Lord when we spend time, daily, in His Word, letting His Word form us so that, as St. Paul tells us, we “take on the mind of Christ” and begin to see the world through His eyes. Elsewhere Paul instructs us “not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, so that we might know what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect.”

            There’s a lot of fake friends out there, though – and I hope our relationship with Christ is not like that. For example, sometimes we have friends who we don’t speak with in ten years – our friendship with Christ is not like that. Sometimes we have friends who always bother us with constant requests for help or to vent – our friendship with Christ should not be like that, only turning to Christ when we need something. Sometimes we have “fair-weather friends” who are around when life is good, but disappear when we really need them. We should not be “fair-weather friends” with Christ – whether in good times or in bad, in suffering or in blessings, we ought to be loyal to Him.

            So let me ask – would you characterize your relationship with Jesus Christ as a friendship? Do you spend time speaking with Him from your heart? Are you generously willing to do whatever He asks? Do you spend time in His Word, so that you share His vision for the world? If not, I challenge you to work on these things. He wishes to call you, not a slave, but a friend. Do you accept the offer?