Today is Feb. 28, Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time.
Today we read in Scripture, “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure” (Sir 6:14).
What does friendship really mean? As a child, being rather inclined to socialize (even at the wrong times as was often noted on my quarterly report cards from St. Charles Borromeo school), I treated everyone as my friend.
There’s some virtue to this to be sure. Part of it’s probably simply due to the amount of fresh air from the Midwest, my beloved home, I’ve consumed over the years!
But there’s more to friendship than congeniality. That’s why the ode to friendship we read in today’s selection from Sirach is so powerful. Sirach tells us that we should be selective in choosing our friends, warning us against false friends. Beware, Scripture says of fair weather friends, as well as those who might use you or betray you.
Friendship ‘seeks to win nothing’
We’ve all had experiences of these false or shallow friendships. In fact, these sorrows of false friendships make true friendships the prize that they are. As Father Benson says, “When my friend fails me at a crisis or when I fail my friend, there is hardly any bitterness in life so bitter.” Our closest and dearest friends aren’t collaborators or allies; they are people who share our hearts, who carry our loves and woes alongside us.
Father Benson says friendship “seeks to win nothing, to produce nothing – but to sacrifice all.” Is there a friendship you’re particularly grateful to God for today? Say a prayer of gratitude. Is there a friendship you’ve neglected? Reach out. Do you have a friendship you’ve wounded? Apologize. Rejoice in friendship today, for – as Sirach says — a true friend is a treasure.
Let us pray,
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
