Friends Along the Way

As we pass the halfway mark for 2025, it is important to take some time to give thanks for the gifts of life, family, friendship, and the many blessings God has bestowed on us along our faith journey, I would like to share a little reflection on holy friendship and about our friends who are interceding for us along the Way.

First, in the day and age where one might have a lot of “friends” and “followers” on social media platforms, but that does not mean one has true friends who know, understand, love, and care for them. One might have a lot of people who easily react, share, or interact with them online (positively or negatively) for a moment, but there is nothing really substantial, personal, and intimate about a behind-the-screen “relationship” and exchange. It is very easy to push a button to express our consent, agreement, or displeasure on a post. It is very easy to type up a message to attack or express our opinions because we really do not know the other person, cannot look them in the eyes when talking, and are unable to picture the real expression of dignity and respect that one has for a brother or sister in Christ Jesus. Social media has made us into instantaneous and quick reactors without truly interacting and knowing how to engage in a respectful civil discourse. We have become people who have no problem expressing our views and being vocal about them, but we do not know how to talk about matters that come from the heart and are really substantial and important. We tend to focus on politics or shallow topics of interest that we can talk about. When it comes time to talk about matters of the soul, faith, prayer, discipleship, and eternal life, we tend to avoid them at all costs.

We have fuzzed up ourselves being occupied with things that are optional and opinionated, but worry less about the matters that are essential and necessary for our salvation and eternal life. We have too many “friends” who only like the things that are appealing and quick to change, but not many friends who are willing to go the extra miles to pray for us, to stand by us, and to speak to us with honesty and loving care for our soul and spiritual well-being. We have too many “friends” and acquaintances who will stay with us when things are well or easy, but not many who choose to love and care for our good and stay with us along the journey back to our heavenly homeland. It is an important reminder, therefore, for us not to look on mere quantity of friends but to have qualitative friendships that are based on true beauty, goodness, and truth that are grounded in Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, not only should we have great friends on earth, but we also need to turn to our friends in heaven to intercede for us. The holy men and women of God, especially those who are officially canonized and recognized for their lives of sanctity by the Church, are great guides, intercessors, companions, and role models for us to follow. As a matter of fact, the saints had similar lives and struggles to ours. Nevertheless, what made them saints, recognized and praised by the Church for their sanctity, was their humility, strength, courage, and perseverance on their faith journey.

When we read the lives of the Saints, we know that they have all struggled. Even though their faith taught them about the goodness of God and their conscience was cleared against trials, evildoings, challenges, obstacles, and temptations, those matters shook and tested them. Yet, through those attacks and failures, they came to personally choose to love and know the loving presence of God, even in the midst of the storms and trials. Therefore, we, too, do have the ability and personal willingness to truly love and abide with the Lord in our very own life’s ups and downs. Those challenging times, even though they were hard, were also moments of growth and unimaginable manifestations of His tender love.

Faith, hope, and love are not just theological virtues to talk and learn about in catechism or spiritual formation class! They are real foundations of who we are as believers, disciples of Christ, instruments of the Holy Spirit, sons and daughters of the Father. Our faith and its understanding of Christ‘s teachings and eternal values strengthen our hope, and our hope makes our faith real by grounding it in personal trust, and our charity helps us to love Him even when it gets hard. In short, faith, hope, and love make our love for God real, personal, and intimate because we know why and who is the source of our beliefs!

We do not have to have everything together, all lined up, make sense, and be perfect. Many times, all we can ever do is to stand firm, ground ourselves, and hold on to the Lord in our times of trial. This is a personal and intimate knowledge that no one could ever teach or afford to us, for it is something that we have to learn ourselves so that our being knows who God is and chooses to be with Him in the midst of many challenges, changes, obstacles, trials, and hardships.

All that we have today, all of our hurts and failures, sufferings and blessings, hardships and victories, trials, battles, and scars have made us stronger and more resilient. Our past might hurt us at times, but we take the time to sift through the negatives. We can see many hidden lessons behind them, and all of these valuable lessons were taught and given at times when we did not expect, thought we could handle them, or were about to give up. Furthermore, we should then be mindful of how we are called to lift one another up in prayers as well. Perhaps we might not notice, but the times we were saved, spared, or rescued were the results of someone’s heartfelt prayers. At times when we thought we could not make it, someone offered his or her sufferings, trials, pains, or hardships as prayers for those who are in need and struggling, and those efficacious sacrifices were accepted by God and put into use to answer our prayers. This is what we call the communion of saints, for we are not in this alone; nevertheless, through our prayers and struggles, we pray and offer what we have for one another.

We have to remember that St. Paul taught us not to overcome evil with evil but with good. (cf. Romans 12:21) This is hard, yet this is the way of the saints and of the Lord Himself. He has chosen the Way of the Cross even though He could have chosen other alternatives in His omnipotence or to simply walk away. He could have chosen to “return the favor” by asking the host of angels to destroy His persecutors and put down those who wanted Him dead. He could have chosen another easier route with a quick decision of His all-powerful will. Yet, He chose to embrace the hurt, the suffering, and the wrongdoings. He chose to allow the evil given and impose upon Him. He embraced the Cross, an instrument of shame and immense suffering — one that should be avoided by any sensible person — for the love of us. Because of what He had done, choosing the impossible and unthinkable, we can relate and know that we have the Savior who understands what it means to be hurt, betrayed, and suffer evil by others for the sake of love.

We are called to be saints, sanctifying our days, and becoming more like the One who created us each day! In a world where they dismissed the need for sanctity by simply making everyone into “angels,” we are called to be mindful of our true calling and reject the errors. Angels are spiritual beings, more pure than us, and their number has been set since they were created before us. We do not become angels when we die; we remain as we are, human beings — either in Heaven, on our way through the purging stage of love, or eternally detached from God through our hardness of heart. We either become saints at the end through the purgation period that begins now, or we do not! The Lord did not come to die for angels; He came to give His life to set us free from slavery to sin and bondage from this world. Many saints have attested that the angels are jealous of us in a way because the Almighty took flesh, lived like us, and chose to die for us as both God and man. Therefore, we are rightly called to be Christlike by seeking holiness, sanctifying ourselves to become more united with Him in words and actions. Simply put, we are called to be saints in reflecting His light to the world by how we live, for our words and actions are the manifestations of our hearts and souls that belong to God.

Let us not, therefore, forget our universal call to holiness and to live as Christ did, not only for ourselves for the greater good and sanctification of this world. Through our genuine gift of faith, we are able to lift one another up and help each other along the way. We are all sinners who are trying each day to be more holy by conforming our lives to Christ Jesus and allowing His loving grace to change us deep from within. Of course, there will be challenging days with their obstacles, hardships, and trials along the way, but as long as we fix our eyes on Him, we can live for Him and with Him. Thus, let us not be scared to be holy and try our best to become saints in our own journey of faith so we can radiate His love to others and help them along their journey as well. May our God be our everything, and Heaven, our true homeland and final destination.