I call you friends...

But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. ~John 15:15

The Lord addresses these wonderful words to us: "I no longer speak of you as slaves.... Instead, I call you friends" (Jn 15:15). We so often feel, and it is true, that we are only useless servants (cf. Lk 17:10).

Yet, in spite of this, the Lord calls us friends, he makes us his friends, he gives us his friendship. The Lord gives friendship a dual definition. There are no secrets between friends: Christ tells us all that he hears from the Father; he gives us his full trust and with trust, also knowledge. He reveals his face and his heart to us. He shows us the tenderness he feels for us, his passionate love that goes even as far as the folly of the Cross. He entrusts himself to us, he gives us the power to speak in his name: "this is my body...", "I forgive you..."  He entrusts his Body, the Church, to us.

To our weak minds, to our weak hands, he entrusts his truth -- the mystery of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the mystery of God who "so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3: 16). He made us his friends - and how do we respond?

~Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 4/18/05 Homily

Thank you, dear Lord, for making me your friend.

Domine non sum dignus...