"Jesus Isn't Your Buddy" by Eric Sammons

[goout]

Yes I do, I was doing a toungue-in-cheek about caricatures.

 

[goout]

One more positive note:
I have an intensely personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I experience His presence very deeply at times. As with any relationship, the experiences are not always pleasurable. But frequently also of kindness and mercy.
He tipped my life upside down till all the spare change ran out of my pockets and nothing was left. The experience of that relationship has always relentlessly led to repentance, conversion, and at the same time closer communion with those around me. Even when I resisted it, the call is relentlessly outward. Communion through personal relationship
Jesus is my Lord and my all.

 

[Genesis315]

I was always taught that another way of saying “to be in the state of grace” was “to be in the friendship of God.” The CE article about sanctifying grace has a good explanation–it addresses a lot of the issues the author above was trying to get at:

1. Friendship

The friendship of God is consequently, one of the most excellent of the effects of grace; Aristotle denied the possibility of such a friendship by reason of the great disparity between God and man. As a matter of fact man is, inasmuch as he is God’s creature, His servant, and by reason of sin (original and mortal) he is God’s enemy. This relation of service and enmity is transformed by sanctifying grace into one of friendship (Trent, Sess. VI, cap. vii: ex inimico amicus). According to the Scriptural concept (Wisdom 7:14; John 15:15) this friendship resembles a mystical matrimonial union between the soul and its Divine spouse (Matthew 9:15; Revelation 19:7). Friendship consists in the mutual love and esteem of two persons based upon an exchange of service or good office (Aristot., “Eth. Nicom.”, VIII sq.). True friendship resting only on virtue (amicitia honesta) demands undeniably a love of benevolence, which seeks only the happiness and well-being of the friend, whereas the friendly exchange of benefits rests upon a utilitarian basis (amicitia utilis) or one of pleasure (amicitia delectabilis), which presupposes a selfish love; still the benevolent love of friendship must be mutual, because an unrequited love becomes merely one of silent admiration, which is not friendship by any means. But the strong bond of union lies undeniably in the fact of a mutual benefit, by reason of which friend regards friend as his other self (alter ego). Finally, between friends an equality of position or station is demanded, and where this does not exist an elevation of the inferior’s status (amicitia excellentie), as, for example, in the case of a friendship between a king and noble subject. It is easy to perceive that all these conditions are fulfilled in the friendship between God and man effected by grace. For, just as God regards the just man with the pure love of benevolence, He likewise prepares him by the infusion of theological charity for the reception of a correspondingly pure and unselfish affection. Again, although man’s knowledge of the love of God is very limited, while God’s knowledge of love in man is perfect, this conjecture is sufficient–indeed in human friendships it alone is possible–to form the basis of a friendly relation. The exchange of gifts consists, on the part of God, in the bestowal of supernatural benefits, on the part of man, in the promotion of God’s glory, and partly in the performance of works of fraternal charity. There is, indeed, in the first instance, a vast difference in the respective positions of God and man; but by the infusion of grace man receives a patent of nobility, and thus a friendship of excellency (amicitia excellentiae) is established between God and the just. (See Schiffini, “De gratia divina”, 305 sqq., Freiburg, 1901.)
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06701a.htm

See also the Summa here:
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3023.htm#article1

 

[DarkLight]

But isn’t Jesus as “buddy” exactly what people like Joel Osteen preach about? (I haven’t actually listened to him at length or read his books, but I’m aware of his “prosperity gospel”)

I’ve encountered many people like this on the internet, even some in person. They’re very casual about Jesus, talking about Him like a friend- which isn’t problematic in itself, but they don’t give Him due reverence as Lord.

“Jesus doesn’t mind that I don’t go to church on Sunday- he knows my heart” is one of the attitudes I’ve had the unpleasant experience of hearing.

I think some variance in approach can also be healthy depending on the person and their own personal background. Approaching Jesus as a friend, for me, helps counter the very fear-based idea of God that I grew up with. Jesus loves me and knows my heart is actually quite comforting when you’re used to feeling guilty for a thousand things that really aren’t sins. (My go-to example for this is missing Mass on the Solemnity of Mary when I didn’t have a car. Walking or biking might have been conceivable in good weather, but not in the conditions then. But I still felt like I was doing something awful.)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I am always running into people who think that there is reverence or “holy fear” or something lost when we make Jesus into our friend or have a “personal relationship” with him or do something to try to bring him down to earth. It seems to me they forget that He came down to earth and became a human being who had friends and reached out to many in a friendly way.

The only place where that kind of thinking goes off the rails is that if you just assume that Jesus would automatically forgive anything you do because he’s “your buddy”, which is not how anyone I know who truly has a personal relationship with Jesus thinks.

i don’t know about anyone else, but I’m perfectly capable of having a “buddy” and also looking up to that person as a higher authority and role model at the same time. Especially when that person happens to be God who made himself into a human for my sake.

Jesus is my friend, my buddy, and also my God. And I think that’s awesome. If some journalist has a problem with it then he can go relate to Jesus in his own way and leave me and mine alone.

I’m reminded of this prayer to Jesus by St. Claude de la Colombiere:

My Friend, you are my true Friend. My only Friend. You take part in all my misfortunes. You know how to turn them into blessings. You listen to me with great kindness when I tell you all my troubles, and you always have something with which to heal my wounds.

I find you at any time of the day or night, for I find you wherever I happen to be. You never leave me. If I change my dwelling place, I find you wherever I go. You never weary of listening to me. I am certain of being loved by You, if I but love You. My worldly goods are of no value to you, but by bestowing yours on me You never grow the poorer. However miserable I may be, no one more noble, more clever, or even more holy, can come between You and me and deprive me of your friendship.

And death, which tears us away from all other friends will unite me forever to You. All the humiliations attached to old age or the loss of honor will never separate you from me; On the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully and you will never be closer to me than when everything seems to conspire against me and cast me down. You bear with all my faults with extreme patience. Even my lack of fidelity and my ingratitude do not wound you to such a degree as to make you unwilling to receive me back when I return to you. O Jesus, grant that I may die loving you and that I may die for love of you. Amen

 

[DarkLight]

The only place where that kind of thinking goes off the rails is that if you just assume that Jesus would automatically forgive anything you do because he’s “your buddy”, which is not how anyone I know who truly has a personal relationship with Jesus thinks.

Also, you know, most of your actual buddies won’t do this anyway. People who take that attitude towards their real life friends tend to end up without any.

 

[JimG]

What could be a more deeply personal relationship with Jesus than to personally receive him in the Eucharist? What better friendship than to be able to stop in the adoration chapel or the church and have a personal conversatiion with him personally present? What better friendship than to go to the confessional and have him personally forgive your sins with the absolution given removing all doubt? Yet an evangelical might not accept such examples of personal friendship. Sometimes I think that without sacramental grounding people feel free to make Jesus a friend in their own image.