Jesus said: "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 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." (Jn 13-15) Have  you reflected on this fact? Jesus calls us his friends. He, who is Lord and God, our Creator and Savior, invites us into a relationship of friendship. On his part he sacrificed his life so that we may have life. He chose to share his divine life with  us, so that we may be with him forever in glory. His friendship is a gift, which betters us. How do we respond so that this is not a one-way friendship, but mutual, though never equal? We do so, when in gratitude we keep his commandments; when we love in return, him and others as he has loved us. Friendship is a choice. We accept and cherish his friendship and seek to be his friend in return, to do what pleases him. Friends spend time with each other, sharing their lives, with the other as always the focus. Some friendships last; others are temporary. Jesus desires an eternal, lasting friendship with us. Do we?