OPEN OUR EYES THAT WE MAY SEE, LORD(Sirach 6:5-17/Psalm 119:12,16,18,34,35/Mark 10:1-12)

OPEN OUR EYES THAT WE MAY SEE LORD
(Friday March 1, 2019)

In a world where falsehood, insincerity, lack of trust and artificiality are the other of the day and deeply rooted in the minds of the majority, to get a true friend is hard and difficult. It is quite unfortunate that many friendships today are built on falsity, artificiality, insincerity, and often times on selfish interest and again. To get friends who possess these attributes of trust and sincerity is indeed a treasure.

We are in a society where many claim to be your friend when things are moving well with you when you are playing on the stage when your ovation is high, when people are singing your praises, when life’s situation brings you joy, happiness and relaxation. This set of people are ready to identify with you in as much as things are moving on well. The same people quickly turn their back against you when things are no longer moving as they used to be. We may classify this kind of friendships as one built on selfish and for personal interests.
They are friends for only what they would gain from you not necessarily that they love you. This is what we call artificial friends.

The second group are those who are ever ready to identify with you as you are, whether rich or not, whether your ovation is high or not, whether you are on the stage or not. They are ready to identify with you in season and out of season because they love you as a person not because of your possession, talents, position and so on. This kind of friendship is one that is characterized by trust and sincerity, not with artificiality and falsehood.

The reading of today clearly distinguishes these kinds of friendship we are talking about and for us to be careful about who we keep as friends. The reading is all about warning and advice. On the side of warning, the reading has it that “if you want to make a friend, take him/her on trial and do not be in a hurry to trust him/her. For one kind of friend is only so when it suits him/her but will not stand by you in your day of trouble”

The reading calls us to avoid such people because they are not true friends. The reading also points out another kind of friends as those who are ready to share your table but will not stand by you in your day trouble. For these friends, when you are doing well, they will be your second self, ordering your servants about, and if ever you are brought low, they will turn against you and will hide from you. The reading also warned us to avoid this kind of people as we pointed out earlier because they are not true friends.

Finally, the first reading provides us with what an ideal friend is like. “That a faithful friend is a sure shelter and whoever finds one has found a rare treasure. A faithful friend is something beyond price and there is no measuring of his/her worth” And we are being reminded in the reading that those who fear the Lord will find this kind of friends with all these attributes. This is because the Lord always guides the steps of the just and those who place their trust in Him will not stumble.
Let us pray that the Lord will train us so as to observe His precepts and always walk in His commandments.

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, help me to be a good friend to my friends and also have good friends around me. May I be selfless in my relationship with people. Amen.