Friends

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout's The Last Supper

At the Last Supper, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus said: "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" (John 15: 15). Friends are not under obligation to begin or to continue a friendship. 

Friends freely choose one another. And they like one another. Have you ever thought of God liking you? Friends like to spend time together; they enjoy one another's company. They share the same interests. Jesus, who has a human and divine heart, chooses you, likes you, enjoys you, and shares your interests and concerns. Yet friendship must be mutual. Jesus calls us friends because he likes us. What about us? How do we respond? Do we accept his friendship or reject it? Do we like him? We would not be here at the All-Night Vigil if we rejected his friendship, yet we do encounter obstacles to our friendship. At times we do not enjoy Jesus' company. We don't share his interests, desires, and concerns the way friends do. This is what we call "sin." 

But there is another, more subtle obstacle to our friendship with Jesus. Fear. Friends don't fear one another. Jesus became human and revealed his Sacred Heart to us in order to cast out fear. It's as though he said: "See my Heart. It's out there, visible and vulnerable. It's open to you. It's on fire, not cold and apathetic. It's wounded for you." Before calling his apostles (and us) "friends" at the Last Supper, Jesus said: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends"

Link (here) to the Apostleship of Prayer's Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.