Friendship demands reciprocal love.
God has loved us first; our love can be only a response: “We love, because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19).
We return God’s love,
1. first of all by accepting it,
3. by opening our heart to him,
4. and letting ourselves be loved.
The very love which God has infused into us becomes the beginning of our response, of our love. “Love is from God” it can come only from him, and moreover we cannot love God supernaturally except with God’s very love.
If we correspond, there will be perfect friendship, because it will be based on equality of love.
What is our part in the exchange of divine friendship?
Jesus has told us: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.—If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (Jn 15:14,10).
The fellowship required by friendship calls for a communion of affections, of desires, and of the will.
We are God’s friends if we will and do what God wills: if we keep his commandments, if in every thing we seek not our own will, but God’s will.
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