for His friends

Giving up your life doesn’t seem so difficult when the question is of a friend that is going to gain. Jesus said no man has greater love than one who lays his life down for a friend. It seems Jesus knew that love moves us to lay our lives down for others without thinking of losing our money, our time, our desires, dreams and our very lives. A patriot dies for his country. He loves his country. And what is friendship but love. We offer a seat to a friend we see in the bus not because we are selfish and couldn’t see the plight of tens of others standing next to us but because giving your seat to a friend is a iota of giving your life in a little way. The train journey only demands your seat. But it is the model derived from Jesus’ example of no man having greater love than one who lays his life down for a friend. And Jesus did the same. He invited us to friendship when he laid his life down. We are his friends. We have no other way to love others than befriending them. Sure, we often are protagonists in a passing act of compassion or generosity. But that is what it is, a passing act, a burst of compassion or zeal of generosity. But the zeal of friendship flows constantly in the blood reminding us “Love…Love…give your life for your friend…lay it down” Friendship affirms a committed heroic love, unlike a passing heroic compassion or generosity, which is always ready when a friend requires to be loved. Friendship doesn’t leave you to the mercy of a heroic leap in virtue. Friendship silently mortifies oneself as a testimony of love. It readily crucifies one’s own passions and interests so that those of a friend can be redeemed.