Road to Emmaus Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 13, 2009

First Reading – Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 98:1, 2-3, 3-4

Second Reading – 1 Jn. 4:7-10

Gospel Reading – Jn. 15:9-17

This Sunday’s Gospel reading picks up where last Sunday’s left off. Last week, in John 15:1-8, we heard Jesus speak of how he is the true vine and we are the branches. The narrative continues into this week when we hear from John 15:9-17.

Jesus says to the Apostles that "I have called you friends…" (Jn. 15:15). However, one might ask, what friendship is biblically speaking.

Abraham, God’s Friend

The first place we might look is at the figure of Abraham. King Jehoshaphat in a prayer asks, "Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it for ever to the decedents of Abraham your friend" (2 Chr. 20:7). Also in Isaiah God says, "Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend" (41:8).

Abraham was God’s friend because he believed the Lord and did the Lord’s will. He left the land of his family when God told him to do so. He received the covenant sign of circumcision when God commanded. He was willing to offer his son as a sacrifice to the Lord because of the will of God.

Moses, God’s Friend

Then we have Moses. "The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Ex. 33:11).

He too was God’s friend because he believed the Lord and did the will of the Lord. Moses obeyed the Lord by going to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, on numerous occasions. Moses led them out of Egypt at the command of the Lord. He led the people to Mount Sinai because God wanted him to; despite the fact there was a quicker route to the Promised Land. He received the Ten Commandments and binds himself by covenant to keep the commandments. He obeyed the will of the Lord to build a tabernacle. He left Mount Sinai when God said to leave. He led a rag tag bunch of ingrates for forty years in the wilderness because God wanted him to.

Pope Benedict XVI, however, gives us some further reflections on Moses’ friendship with God. In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, he says that the most important thing about Moses were not his miraculous deeds, "The most important thing is that he spoke with God as with a friend. This was the only possible springboard for his works" (4).

Pope Benedict goes on further to say that Moses’ job, as prophet, was to show "us the face of God, and in so doing he shows us the path we have to take" (4). So, a friend of God makes the will of God known.

What also must be noted is that Moses’ friendship with God is based on his intimacy with God as he stands in the presence of God to speak with him. "Then Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai…And Moses entered the cloud…" (Ex. 24:15-16, 18). Also, "When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would speak to Moses" (Ex. 33:9).

David and Jonathan

Another example of friendship in the Old Testament that is worth considering is not a friendship between God and a man, but between two men, namely David and King Saul’s son, Jonathan. However, we need a little bit of context before quoting a passage that describes the friendship between David and Jonathan.

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The situation is that Saul is reigning as king over all Israel. Jonathan would have been the one to succeed his father to become the next king. However, because of the sinfulness of Saul the prophet Samuel comes to Saul and says, "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king" (1 Sam. 15:23b). In effect this means that there will be no royal dynasty for Saul’s family. Saul will continue to reign until his death, but Jonathan will not be the next king.

After this the Lord tells Samuel to go to the house of Jesse to privately anoint him who would be the next king of Israel, i.e. David. After this we hear of an interaction between the next king, David, and the one who would have been the next king, Jonathan. Instead of Jonathan being filled with anger and envy, we are told, "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul…Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of his robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt" (1 Sam. 18:1, 3-4).

Their friendship is so deep that they were knit together as one soul. The Hebrew word qashar, translated "knit," carries the connotation of being joined together. They are so closely bound together in friendship that they could almost be considered a single entity, inseparable.

Then we hear about Jonathan loving David "as his own soul." This is reminiscent of what Jesus will say to us all, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mk. 12:31). To demonstrate this filial friendship and love, they make a covenant.

First, through the making of a covenant there is a familial bond created. Covenants, in fact, make family. A sacred, irrevocable, familial bond is thus created between the two.

Second, to demonstrate his friendship and loyalty to the next king Jonathan strips himself of his entire kingly garb since he is not to be king and gives them to David. This is a gesture of profound humility on Jonathan’s part.

Another event that shows us something about friendship is David’s reaction to Jonathan and Saul’s death. "Then David took hold of his clothes, and tore them; and so did all the men who were with him; and they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel…" (2 Sam. 1:11-12). Then in a song of lamenting David says, "Jonathan lies slain upon your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful…" (2 Sam. 1:25b-26). Notice the familial language of brother.

I have called you friends

All of this should help shed some light on what Jesus means when he says to the Twelve, "I have called you friends…" (Jn. 15:15). Of course Jesus will also deepen the meaning.

This friendship is to be like that between God and Abraham and Moses. Abraham and Moses did the will of the Lord, they followed his commandments. Jesus, who is God, says to the Apostles, "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (Jn. 15:14). This may sound odd at first, but this is after Jesus has said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:12-13).

Please notice that this goes beyond Jonathan loving David "as his own soul." This even goes beyond what Jesus has said in the past: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mk. 12:31). The command they must follow to be his friend is "that you love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). How has Jesus loved them? "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). This is raising the bar of friendship to a whole new level.

Like the friendship of David and Jonathan all of this talk of friendship by Jesus is also within a covenant context. The words that Jesus speaks are within the context of the Last Supper where he will say, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me…This chalice which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood" (Lk. 22:19b, 20b). There is a sacred family bond created by Christ’s offering of himself in the Eucharist and on Calvary.

Also, like Moses, their friendship with Jesus is based on their intimacy with Jesus. Moses stood in the presence of the living God. However, the Apostles not only stand in the presence of the living God, but the living God comes into them, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.

We have learned a few lessons about friendship with Jesus.

1. True friendship with Christ involves doing his will, like Abraham and Moses.

2. True friendship with Christ involves making the will of the Lord known to others, like Moses.

3. True friendship with Christ involves being of one soul with him, like David and Jonathan. This of course starts in Baptism, but this personal intimacy with Christ means also being of one soul with him through consuming his body, blood, soul and divinity.

4. True friendship with Christ involves loving Christ and others as ourselves, as our own soul. But beyond that loving Christ and others as he loved us.

5. True friendship with Christ involves being in the new and everlasting covenant family of God. In Baptism we become sons and daughters of the Father, and true brothers and sisters of Christ.

Let’s end with the words of the second reading from this Sunday. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:7-10).