Could Jesus and the Buddha be friends?

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I know the Buddha lived some 400 years before Christ but do you think they could be friends? My thoughts on this are that Jesus would want to be friends with all sinners in order for them to learn the truth.
 
Buddha was probably inspired by God.

Those who sought the truth and did not know Christ, God would reveal truths to them.

They had no knowledge about Jesus as he had not been born yet.
 
Jesus probably would have gotten along well with any of the ancient mystics or philosophers: Buddha, Confucius, Cicero, Plato, etc. He got along with non-Jews like the one Roman centurion and even brought his daughter back to life.
 
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We are all called to the priesthood of the people. Buddha was a creation of God, a person.
One of the great roles of the priesthood of the people is friendship with God.
 
Jesus got along with anybody who wasn’t being a jerk, and Buddha seemed like he was pretty mellow.

So yes, I could picture it.
 
Perhaps but both were from very different cultures and had different objectives in mind.
 
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
 
Jesus said that in order to become his friends, we must follow his commandments. If Buddha was willing to accept Jesus as the Savior of Man and the Son of God and willing to follow his commandments than Jesus would be his friend. If he was unwilling to accept this then he would be Jesus’ enemy.
 
I would agree, posting an article that says The story is a Christianized version of one of the legends of Buddha,

does not equate to the Catholic church cannonized buddha. For one, the church cannot, given buddha is buddhist, not catholic. Unless this poster is saying buddha is indeed catholic, but then there would be the question of his writings. Are they Catholic doctrine and dogma.
 
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My immediate reply is yes, I think Jesus and the Buddha could be friends. I’m assuming this is a fantasy scenario where the two are somehow brought together while they were still living on earth. I’d like to think that the physical presence of Our Lord was so compelling and attractive that the Buddha of all people would recognize exactly whom he was speaking with. That reveals my bias as a Christian, of course.

Perhaps an even more complicated question is if Jesus and Muhammed could have been friends. I don’t want that to derail the thread, however, it just came to my mind. One last thought, I am very much gladdened and encouraged whenever people of different faiths become friends now. These days, I’m discouraged to see Christians and even my fellow Catholics too often fighting and regarding each other with disdain and animosity.
 
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yankeesouth said:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
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TTBOMK Buddha never presented himself as a divine person, his followers did that after his passing.

I speculate that Buddha would have become a disciple, if they had met.
 
Christ would have wanted Siddhartha Gotama to become a follower of God, but Buddha would have wanted Jesus of Nazareth to follow the eightfold path. This difference might create some conflict between them, though I think they’d both recognize that the other is genuinely trying to do good in the world. Jesus called the corrupt Sadducees a nest of vipers, but did not show the same hostility to the pagan woman or the Samaritan woman or the roman centurion.
 
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rossum said:
The Catholic Encyclopedia is fiction? Look at the bottom of the page, this particular fiction has an Imprimatur and a Nihil Obstat .
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All that means is nothing is against church faith and morals. The person giving these is not required to agree with what is written. It only means nothing is against doctrine and dogma. You are misinterpreting that entry.
A non Catholic cannot become a canonized saint. full stop, end of story.
This is because they have not accepted the fullness of faith.
 
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That’s a good point. I remember reading in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that all the Old Testament figures are considered saints.
 
I never said the Buddha was a Catholic saint but I don’t see any harm in that belief even if it’s mistaken if it draws buddhists to Christ.
 
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