The Relevance of Holy Friendship in Today's Church and World: Introduction

The Vision of St John Bosco.
Image from catholic.org

St John Bosco had the vision of the Church as a big ship that is under attack by various forces trying to sink her. She is being bombarded on all sides. But she is being ably steered by the Pope and supported by smaller flotillas through two columns with one supporting a Host, which is the Holy Eucharist, inscribed with "Salvation of Believers", and the other with an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary aptly labelled "Help of Christians". In the vision, changes in the Petrine office took place amid the present troubles that the Church faced and encountered. Though the ship was almost being overwhelmed  by the sheer number of its enemies, she was able to overcome these and tie herself to the columns.

In our time we can see that this vision seem to be happening. This period of time seems to be the worst that the Church is facing so far. She is constantly being attacked on all sides: the enemy surely wants her sudden death! We can even say that within her there are those who create leaks though some of those who are doing it are unconscious that they are cooperating with the enemy. 

The most formidable foes of the Church today are relativism, secularism,  indifferentism, atheism, modernism, even indifference, and various forms and combinations of these. Unfortunately, even among members of the Church, there are those who subscribe to these ideas. For them, obedience to the Church, the Pope and the Bishops seem to be an outdated discipline. The profession of Faith seems to be a mere recitation of words rather than a true and sincere personal declaration of Faith. Instead of defending the Faith, they would even try to defend their new beliefs [such as homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, new age movement, freemasonry, etc] and when some articles of the Faith would seem inconsistent with what they presently follow, they would demand that the Church should be open to changes in accordance with the times. As one US Cardinal wrote, "The Legislature might just as well repeal the law of gravity."

Blessed Pope John Paul II remarked that one of the problems of the current times is the loss of the sense of sin. Worse, many people do not even believe in the devil anymore. Worst, even Catholics entertain various traditions and customs that are clearly inconsistent with the faith such as horoscopes and indulge in vices that does not speak well of faith and charity such as gambling. 

Also, instead of going to a priest, as Fr Henry Nouwen observed and wrote in his book, In the Name of Jesus, many people, including Catholics, would now go to other professionals when in need of assistance to their problems because they no longer believe that these problems are rooted in sin but in some psychological or emotional - or some other - imbalance or sickness. Another reason is that people seek and demand for competence and they believe that competence can only be provided by people with the right background such as psychologists, psychotherapists, marriage counselors, etc and not priests. Religion, spirituality and morality are now relegated to a certain corner and only taken into consideration when all other prescriptions already fail.

But the Church cannot but continue to perform her role and fulfill her mission. She must not and cannot stop just because people won't listen anymore. The Apostle Paul said that she must preach whether in season or out of season, whether people would listen or not [see 2 Timothy 4: 2-5]. This is in accordance too with the great commission to preach the Gospel to the ends of world and to make disciples of the Lord [see Matthew 28:19]. This mission is not without corresponding challenges and danger but the Lord assured the Church that He will be with her until the end of time [see Mathew 28:20]. 

The Church has many tools and instruments within her arsenal which comes from her divine Founder to counter the foes that seek to destroy her - both from the outside and those within [see 1 Corinthians 12: 4-6]. Two thousand years of existence have armed her with every weapon that could possibly destroy opposition [the Holy Bible, the Seven Sacraments, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Ecumenical Councils, the Canon Law, the Church Social Teachings, and  more]. But the most important thing that could give her a renewed vigor to face all dangers and win the battle is to follow the command of the Lord to love one another [see John 13: 34-35; 15: 12-17]. According to the Apostle Paul, love is the best way of all [see 1 Corinthian 12:31 followed by the full text of Chapter 13 which discuss about love]. 

The Lord Jesus Christ has empowered us - members of the Church - to become not merely His servants but His friends through love [see John 15: 12-17] and has even made an example of it by first washing the feet of His Apostles [see John 13: 4-10] and by dying upon the cross even when we were still sinners [see Romans 5:8]. All of these because God so loved us [see John 3:16; Romans 5:8] even loving us first [see 1 John 4:19]. The Father's and the Lord's love should inspire in facing and dealing with the foes of the Church. For this is the standard by which the Lord called His disciples to follow: that we should even love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us [see Matthew 5: 43-48] because by so doing, we "shall heap burning coals on their head" [see Proverbs 25: 21-22; Romans 12:20]. 

Two important manifestations of the Lord's love for us are the memorial of His sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist, which in St John Bosco's vision is called the "Salvation of Believers" which is perfectly fitting to what the Lord said: that He is the bread of life and that whoever eats His body and drinks His blood will live forever [see the entire chapter of John 6]. He also left us the Blessed Virgin Mary, the "Help of Christians" as our mother to take care of us and whom we should also respect and take care of [see John 19: 26-27].

As we meditate on the Gospel of Holy Friendship, John 15: 12-17, let us remember that we are facing great challenges and various trials. Many will seek to discourage us for the enemy - working through them - will never want to have more smaller flotillas to navigate alongside the Great Flagship, the Holy Mother Church. Let us keep the faith, remain hopeful, and constantly loving each other. Let us never forget that the Lord promised that for those who will remain faithful until the end, He shall reward with glory [see Revelation 2: 26-28; 3:21].