Friday 28 February 2025 - Faithful friends

Friday 28 February 2025

Today is Friday the 28th of February in the 7th week of Ordinary Time.    Emoni Wilkins with the Porter’s Gate sings, ‘By My Side’. As you listen, call to mind your friendships...  with the Lord....  and with those who walk alongside you on your journey of faith...   Today’s reading is from the Book of Ecclesiasticus.    Ecclesiasticus 6:5-17    Pleasant speech multiplies friends,     and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies.  Let those who are friendly with you be many,     but let your advisers be one in a thousand.  When you gain friends, gain them through testing,     and do not trust them hastily.  For there are friends who are such when it suits them,     but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.  And there are friends who change into enemies,     and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace.  And there are friends who sit at your table,     but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.  When you are prosperous, they become your second self,     and lord it over your servants;  but if you are brought low, they turn against you,     and hide themselves from you.  Keep away from your enemies,     and be on guard with your friends.    Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter:     whoever finds one has found a treasure.  Faithful friends are beyond price;     no amount can balance their worth.  Faithful friends are life-saving medicine;     and those who fear the Lord will find them.  Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright,     for as they are, so are their neighbours also.    Today the author of Ecclesiasticus turns his thoughts towards friendship. You might begin this time of prayer, then, by thinking of three people who you consider to be your friends. What are they like? What attracts you to them?    Much of this passage concerns enemies and false friends. Perhaps our author has been let down by someone close to him in the past. Is there anything in this that echoes with your own experience?    Despite the caution that Ecclesiasticus shows, the passage ends by placing a high value on friendship. How far does that side of what is said echo your own experience?    In listening to the reading again, note especially the images that Ecclesiasticus uses in describing what good friends are like.    Ecclesiasticus 6:5-17    Pleasant speech multiplies friends,     and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies.  Let those who are friendly with you be many,     but let your advisers be one in a thousand.  When you gain friends, gain them through testing,     and do not trust them hastily.  For there are friends who are such when it suits them,     but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.  And there are friends who change into enemies,     and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace.  And there are friends who sit at your table,     but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.  When you are prosperous, they become your second self,     and lord it over your servants;  but if you are brought low, they turn against you,     and hide themselves from you.  Keep away from your enemies,     and be on guard with your friends.    Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter:     whoever finds one has found a treasure.  Faithful friends are beyond price;     no amount can balance their worth.  Faithful friends are life-saving medicine;     and those who fear the Lord will find them.  Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright,     for as they are, so are their neighbours also.    You might like to finish this prayer by holding your own friends before God; or by talking to Jesus as a friend about what his friendship means to you.  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.