Author: Conor Sullivan  / Kenrick Glennon Seminary

Author’s Instruction:    Prior to reading this blog: http://amicitiadante.blogspot.com/ which is the completed project on Friendship based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, please read a supplementary paper which summarizes the work as a whole. The paper is only a short reflection on the content, while the blog holds most of the substance of the project.  Thank you!

NB: When you enter the blog site, click into the pilgrimage beginning with Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics.

The concept of Christian Friendship has always intrigued me. Last silent retreat I read a book called, “The Friendship of Christ: Exploring the Humanity of Jesus Christ.” This book offers a true exposition of a concept that is frequently misunderstood: the concept of Jesus’ call to friendship with His faithful servants. Frequently, this misunderstanding leads to an over-emotional view of the faith, which is bound to crumble eventually. Rather, this book looks to understand Christ’s call to friendship by studying closely His actions in the Gospel and attempting to connect them to a contiguous view of what friendship truly is. Once I saw the proper concept of friendship, I recognized its true nature as the basis for all Christian relationships and vocations- everything goes back to this call. The base of the married life is the friendship of the spouses. The base of the vocation to the priesthood or religious life is a special call of friendship with our Lord. All other relationships on earth are ordered to achieving the greatest friendship which is sought in the vocations of the religious life or priesthood (which is the foundation for saying that this is a “higher calling” since it looks forward to the relationship had only in Heaven). Further, every action and teaching of Christ was to draw men closer to Himself and His Father- every act was an act of friendship. Robert Hugh Benson’s book uses this concept in pursuing the true meaning of the Friendship of Christ.

After I was turned onto this notion, I realized how much this idea of friendship pervades Dante’s Commedia, which stresses to a great degree the need for proper community in order to advance through purgatory, the lack of community in Hell, and the perfect community in Heaven. The proper object of friendship is demonstrated very clearly in the Divine Comedy simply because every relationship, every story, every occurrence is ordered to the final end which is the Beatific Vision, God Himself. This is most clearly seen in the Purgatorio when the souls climb the mountain in order to grow closer, once more, to one another so that they may be worthy to enter into the presence of God. For example, souls in the Cornice of the Wrathful must call out to one another in order to navigate through thick smoke. They have lost sight of one another and they can’t see ahead of themselves, so they stay close together and call out to one another for guidance. Dante always uses beautiful imagery to demonstrate these principles.

The direction that I can take this is clear: these principles have a direct effect on the spiritual life. Friendship with Christ is not just any motivation for a deeper prayer life; it is the motivation. Essentially, Friendship with Christ orders the soul for salvation. Not only does my research have further intellectual implications, which lead to further research and understanding, this project has an impact on eternal life. The true essence of friendship is sacrifice. This research has always pointed me directly to the Cross, the epitome of Christian friendship. We must constantly sacrifice ourselves for one another for the sake of the kingdom simply because Jesus taught us what true friendship is. In order for us to become perfect, we must crucify ourselves in the image of our God and fulfill this call to perfect Christian love, which is ultimately realized in sacrifice.