True friendship is eternal.

True friendship is eternal.
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True friendship binds hearts with true love.

True love longs for the good of the hearts loved, rather than its own good.

True love is always frank and never  hides anything from the beloved.

Our Lord Jesus, whose love for us is unlimited, says,

"I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Jesus' love for us is the truest one and He is our best Friend.

We know His true love not only by His words but also by His deed.

He sacrificed His life on the cross for us.

"This is the greatest love a man can shew, that he should lay down his life for his friends;"
(John.15:13)

By these words we know that no one's love for us is greater than that of Jesus.

Love is lasting.

True love will not end itself for any reason.

If it ends itself for any reason,  it cannot be true love,  but conditional love.

Jesus' love for us is true, unconditional and everlasting.

Jesus is eternal and His love for us too is eternal.

Even before we were created as real people, we were as an idea in God's eternal mind.

He loves us unconditionally from all eternity.

As His love is unconditional we cannot use conditional clause when we refer to His love.

God loves sinners.

God loves saints.

God created man out of pure love.

Man was sinless when he was created.

He became sinful when he broke God's commandment.

Man changed.

But God cannot change.

He loves man with or without sin; He loves the person,  not his state.

As His love is eternal, just as His other attributes, He loves sinners even in hell just as He loves the saints in Heaven.

Sinners in hell are not benefited by God's love as they are hard heartened.

Saints are benefited by His love as they reciprocate His love.

Saints will enjoy God's love and friendship everlastingly.

By saints I refer to all the persons who are in Heaven enjoying beatific  vision.

As God loves us, He is our Friend.

We should reciprocate His love to become His friends.

When we become His friends,  all His friends will become our friends.

Christian love loves both God and our neighbours.

So all are our friends in God.

We should love God.

But that is not enough.

We are duty bound to see that all our friends in this world love God and become His friends as we are.

This is called 'evangelization', that is,  giving Jesus to others.

Our love for God and for our neighbours must be true and lasting.

In the broadest sense of the term, 'saints' refers to all the persons  who are in cordial  relationship with God, in this world and the next.

They belong to 'The communion of saints',

Which is 'the spiritual union of the members of the Christian Church, living and the dead, those on earth, in heaven and  in purgatory,  in the state of purification.'

So, we are all the members of the same spiritual family of friends, whose mutual love is true and everlasting.

We call ourselves friends, because Our Lord Jesus Has called us so.

''I have called you friends,...''

Just now while on earth we may not be able to see all our friends who are scattered all around the world,

but a day will come when we will be in Heaven, where we will
enjoy our friendship with everlasting bliss in union with God, who is our best Friend and our dear Father.

God the Father is our Father.

Jesus is our Brother.

Friendship can exist between anybody, even between Father and children and between brothers and sisters.

Where there is love, there is friendship.

The following words of Jesus inspired me to call Jesus our Friend.

''This is my commandment, that you should love one another, as I have loved you. 

13 This is the greatest love a man can shew, that he should lay down his life for his friends;

14 and you, if you do all that I command you, are my friends.

 15 I do not speak of you any more as my servants; a servant is one who does not understand what his master is about, whereas I have made known to you all that my Father has told me; and so I have called you my friends. 

16 It was not you that chose me, it was I that chose you. The task I have appointed you is to go out and bear fruit, fruit which will endure; so that every request you make of the Father in my name may be granted you.

17 These are the directions I give you, that you should love one another.(John.15:12-17)

Lourdu Selvam.