Friday 16 September 2022
Ss Cornelius and Cyprian
1 Corinthians 15:12-20. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full – Psalm 16(17):1, 6-8, 15. Luke 8:1-3.
The wonderful gift of friendship
I’ve never liked the expression ‘No, we’re just good friends.’ The word seems to disparage one of the greatest of all gifts: friendship. Of course, we love our families. But friends are a different kind of blessing, especially people we have known for ages. As we discover in today’s Gospel, Jesus had a wonderful gift for friendship. Just a few lines tell us not only about ‘the twelve’ but also about Mary of Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and other women ‘who provided for them out of their own resources’. They didn’t just provide for themselves but for each other. It was a community. Pope Francis has written that friendship is essential for human dignity and for a sense of connection to all people and to the planet. True friends, he reminds us, are often people who have forgiven each other. Jesus’ companions were far from perfect. But he didn’t let that stand in the way of their friendship.
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