Here a few saying from Scripture and the Father of the Church on true friendship…
Do not allow yourself to violate the Divine commandment for the sake of human friendship.
St. Anthony the Great
Do not make acquaintances with a wicked man: friendship with the wicked is friendship with the devil.
St. Anthony the Great
A forward man sows strife: and a whisperer separates chief friends. (Proverbs 16:2.8)
“A faithful friend is beyond price” (Ecclesiasticus 6:15), since he regards his friend’s misfortunes as his own and suffers with him sharing his trials until death. A true friend is one who in times of trial calmly and imperturbably suffers with his neighbour the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own. Do not lightly discard spiritual love: for men there is no other road to salvation. Because today an assault of the devil has aroused some hatred in you, do not judge as base and wicked a brother whom yesterday you regarded as spiritual and virtuous; but with long-suffering love dwell on the goodness you perceived yesterday and expel today’s hatred from your soul.
St. Maximus the Confessor, “Four Centuries on Love”
A faithful friend is a strong defense: and he that has found such an one has found a treasure. Nothing countervails a faithful friend; and his excellency is invaluable. A faithful friend is the medicine of life. Ecclesiasticus 6:14-16
Indeed, the services of a faithful friend are invaluable. If fall into calamity or woe a faithful friend will try to rescue you from calamity; a faithful friend will not spare his tranquility, health and property in order to alleviate your situation; a faithful friend, if not by deed, then by means of good counsel will help you, for, after all, good counsel in a timely manner is more precious than gold; a faithful friend by his concern alone will alleviate three woes. Woe is heavy when there is no one to express it to; but it is fully alleviated if there is a being near to us before whom we can pour out our heart and in whose sympathy we do not doubt.
Bishop Bessarion of Kostroma
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash
