“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you” (John 15:13-16).

All real, human friendships are founded on the prime friendship, between Jesus and ourselves. Even knowing our weaknesses and sinfulness, he chooses us to be his friends, to be one with him. It is based on his unconditional love for us. While we can’t love him in the same way, our love for him establishes a bond between us. This bond, on our part, is broken by sin. On his part, he still loves us in spite of our sins. He is indeed a true friend. He accepts us as we are here and now. My role is to grow in this friendship by doing that which pleases him out of love.