Lent Day 16: Friendship and Holiness

I wrote a post about friendship back when I was looking through CS Lewis’s The Four Loves. In that post, I said that friendship comes from shared experiences. But there are other aspects of friendship that I didn’t go into. And this post does have something to do with Fr. Robert Barron’s Lenten Meditation for today, which talks about how Lent is a great time for what Clueless calls a “makeover of the soul.”

But what does friendship have to do with Lent or soul-related makeovers? 

In spite of what people say, like actually attracts like more often than it attracts the opposite. As much as I love the crazy opposites-attract-bicker-turning-into-romantic-banter type of relationships, my favorite kind of relationship always involves two friends who sort of carried feelings for each other and all of a sudden they realize just how much they love each other as more-than-just-friends. The best relationships start out as friendships 

However, it doesn’t mean that you have to always fall in love with your best friend. The best friendships don’t need to cross that line because there is no need for a line at all. Friendship can just exist as it is.as in the case of Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye. 

When it comes to friendships and faith, we want to have friends who are either as holy as we are or holier than we are. Rachel and Kateri‘s latest video says that friends should make us want to be better people, friends who lift us up and are good influences on us. If you watch Rachel and Kateri’s vid, you’ll notice that three out of the four saint-friendships they mentioned are a male-female pairing. So, Sarah and Phil, on the very bizarre chance that you are reading this blog post, you are not alone in your very awesome platonic friendship. 

So yes, When Harry Met Sally, men and women can be just friends without falling in love with each other. Through a genuine, selfless, loving friendship, we can all make over our souls and become better people. And that’s the best kind of friendship to have.

I’ll leave you with a quote from my friend Laura Forbes, poet and advocate for epilepsy, who has this to say about friendship.

…In life we are a part of each other and if we forget that, we are lost. That is what creates peace and love in this world is knowing we are part of each other having faith in one another.