Are We Friends of Jesus Christ?

01-04-2026Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in history. He lives! The Way #584

Christ the center of our lives, there can be no compromises Blessed Rupert Mayer S.J.

– Friends of Jesus Christ

“I no longer call you servants, but friends” (Jn 15:15). We Christians are the friends of Christ, chosen by Him (15:16). The entire Christian life must be understood as a friendship with Jesus Christ, with all that this implies free choice, personal knowledge, mutual love, an intimate and constant relationship, collaboration, inseparable union, and the desire to please and not offend one another. This is the friendship that enables us to live in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, as children of the Father.

Saint Teresa of Avila taught with great passion that personal friendship with Jesus Christ is the principal path of Christian spirituality. In her time, some pseudo-mystics proposed a Zen-style prayer, believing that "turning away from the body"—from the humanity of Christ! —was an indispensable condition for reaching full contemplation and union with the Triune God.

The Saint argues forcefully against this notion that “the most sacred Humanity of Christ must not be taken into account” (Life 22,8). Jesus already said: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). “That we should deliberately and purposefully become accustomed to not striving with all our might to always bring before us—and would it please the Lord that it were always so—this most sacred Humanity, I say that this does not seem right to me, and that it is like the soul wandering aimlessly, because it seems to have no support, however much it may seem to be filled with God. It is a great thing, while we live, and we are human, to bring Him what is human” (22,9).

“With such a good friend present, with such a good captain who was first in suffering, everything can be endured. He is a help and gives strength, he never fails, he is a true friend. And I see clearly that, to please God and for Him to grant us great graces, He wants it to be through the hands of this most sacred Humanity, in whom His Majesty said He delights. Very, very many times I have seen it from experience; the Lord has told me so; I have seen clearly that we must enter through this door if we want the sovereign Majesty to show us great secrets. So, Lord, do not desire any other path, even if you are at the summit of contemplation; this is the safe way. This Lord of ours is the one through whom all good things come to us” (Life 22,6-7).

– The Sacred Heart

In this same vein, the Church teaches us that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “is considered, in practice, as the most complete profession of the Christian religion” (Pius XII’s encyclical You Will Draw Waters 1956, 29). Moreover, Jesus Christ has so often been hated, slandered, despised, or forgotten that, as Pius XI says, “the spirit of expiation and reparation” rightly has “the primacy and the most important part in devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus” (encyclical The Most Merciful Redeemer 1928, 9).

Paul VI also declared the excellence of this worship and devotion, relating them profoundly to the mystery of the Eucharist (Apostolic Letter the Discoverable Riches of Christ, February 6, 1965). And this has undoubtedly always been the spirituality of the saints: to know and love Jesus Christ. “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

– Characteristics of friendship with Christ

We call ourselves friends of someone when we know them personally, when we have dealings with them, intimate dealings, we help and collaborate with them, we do not offend them, we love them and remember them, and in them we find comfort and joy.

– To know Him personally, not just by hearsay – And for this, prayer, meditation, sacraments, the Word of God, seeing Him in our neighbors, the poor, etc. The most important thing in the Gospels! That is why they were written (Jn 20:30-31).

– To love him, to cherish him, to remember him, to “keep him in constant remembrance” (St. Hippolytus, +236, Apostolic Tradition), and to strive to make others love him as well. Apostolic action springs from a deep friendship with Christ.

– Regular interaction, not just occasional visits or only in times of distress and need. Generosity and consistency are hallmarks of true friendship. Friends try to be together whenever possible: they are inseparable. It is prayer, continuous prayer, that gives strength for the apostolate.

– Friendly intimacy. Coexistence. Officials, colleagues, etc., sometimes have this too. But no: real, authentic friendship implies friendly intimacy, ease of consultation, requests, venting, and commentary.

– To serve our friend, to collaborate in his endeavors. In friendship with Christ, to glorify the Father and save humankind. God has chosen, called, and consecrated us as “companions and co-workers” (Mk 3:14). To live with him and for him.

– Do not offend or displease him in any way. Try not to offend him, suffer for those who offend him: “streams of tears flow from my eyes for those who do not do your will” (Psalm 118:136).

– Comfort. The friend of Christ also seeks comfort and joy in Him, and only secondarily in creatures. In principle, let us strive to seek all light and comfort in Christ Himself. -End Father José María Iraburu

God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:13-20).