Luceat!

            Every person in the world wants a best friend.  We all desire to have a companion, a wingman, or comrade in our daily adventures.  We desire to share our good experiences, our sorrows, and our dreams with another.  No one wants to live life in his or her head, because we know that living life in our heads is not reality. 

            Friendship helps us to see what is real and who we really are.  But there seem to be so many types of friendships.  People seem so different, so what should we be striving for in a good friendship?  There are many things that make up a good friendship; I would like to hit on one key element in this post: Virtue. 

            Virtue, according the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is the habitual disposition to do the good. In layman’s terms, that is a person who is free to choose right when given a choice between good and evil.  However, virtue often becomes displayed as something only ancient Greeks or the Medieval Church talked about. 

            These criticisms fall short of the litmus test of true friendship.  Working on college campuses I find that the friendships that are built on virtue last while friendships that are built on good times together and sharing things in common come crashing to the ground at the first sign of conflict.

            Why is this?  The reason must be that we, in and of ourselves, cannot hold our friendships together.  We have a tendency to use other people as means to our benefit.  When someone feels used or realizes that they are not seen as an end in themselves, then they will separate themselves from the cause of their use. 

            People are not meant to be used, they are meant to be loved.  There is a profound disconnect in our world today that as lowered the dignity of the human being to that of a chair.  We simply have others in our lives for sake of sitting on them when we need them.

            At the aid of virtue we find a protection from this attitude of use that can potentially poison our minds.  In the pursuit of virtue, we realize our need for accountability.  We realize this need as we realize our weakness as we strive to become good on our own.  We need someone to walk with us.  We need to walk with others. 

Our God understands this, hence the Incarnation.  God became man to walk with humanity and bring humanity into friendship with God.  Friendship with God will lead us into friendships with others that are based on virtue.  This virtue will enliven our desires to become saints in the midst of this world bringing the name of Jesus to all we come in contact with.  Of course, as we look ahead on this path of relationships we see the shadows of the Cross.  Be not afraid, another post regarding that shadow is only a week or two away!