Even my dearest friend
When I was praying the Vespers of Friday 19 January, 2025, the liturgical memorial of St Anthony the Great, I was literally struck by the following verses of the second Psalm, in other words, Psalm 40 (41). According to the breviary, the theme of the Psalm was a prayer in times of sickness.
Here are the verses: Even my dearest friend, in whom I put my trust, who had eaten my bread – even he trampled me down./ But you, Lord – have mercy on me, revive me, and I will pay them back. This is how I know that I have your favour, when my enemy cannot triumph over me, when you raise me up because of my innocence, and put me in your presence for all eternity.
In this portion of the Psalm I come to appreciate the friendship God has with us. It is a friendship based on mercy and revival. God raises his friends up and put them in his presence for all eternity. What a great difference from the plain betrayal of people that lead to resentment and narrowness of heart, mind and spirit!
How beautiful it is to have Jesus as our friend! Pope Benedict XVI in his 2005 homily on his installation as the Bishop of Rome spoke on friendship with Christ in the following terms:
Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.
Let us pray with Blessed Claude de la Colombiere, S.J, addressing Jesus as our true personal friend:
Jesus! You are my true Friend, my only Friend.
You take a part in all my misfortunes;
You take them on Yourself;
You know how to change them into blessings;
You listen to me with the greatest kindness when I relate my troubles to You,
and You have always balm to pour on my wounds.
I find You at all times;
I find You everywhere,
You never go away:
if I have to change my dwelling,
I find You there wherever I go.
You are never weary of listening to me,
You are never tired of doing me good.
I am certain of being beloved by You,
if I love You; my goods are nothing to You,
and by bestowing Yours on me, You never grow poor;
however miserable I may be,
no one nobler or cleverer or even holier can come between You and me,
and deprive me of Your friendship;
and death, which tears us away from all other friends,
will unite me forever to You.
All the humiliations attached to old age,
or to the loss of honor,
will never detach You from me;
on the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully,
and You will never be closer to me
than when everything seems to conspire against me
to overwhelm me and to cast me down.
You bear with all my faults with extreme patience,
and even my want of fidelity and my ingratitude
do not wound You to such a degree
as to make You unwilling to receive me when I return to You.
O Jesus, grant that I may die praising You,
that I may die loving You,
that I may die for the love of you.
Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
