Friendship Day

Facebook periodically promotes special days for its members to celebrate and share with their Facebook friends, which has the entirely coincidental effect of increasing web traffic on the Facebook site and thus the advertising rates charged by Facebook, Inc. One of these days is the Friendship Day, on which brightly coloured balloons, gift boxes, ribbons, and other happy things swim across the computer screen with one click. This is what passes for friendship in cyberspace. 

Truer things, however, usually are gifts to us from ancient wisdom and tradition. So it is that the First Reading on this Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time is from the Book of Sirach. I will let the Reading speak for itself in its own unadorned force, simplicity, and truth: 

Lectionary: 345

Reading 1SIR 6:5-17

A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies,
and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.
Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, first test him,
and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him,
but he will not be with you in time of distress.
Another is a friend who becomes an enemy,
and tells of the quarrel to your shame.
Another is a friend, a boon companion,
who will not be with you when sorrow comes.
When things go well, he is your other self,
and lords it over your servants;
But if you are brought low, he turns against you
and avoids meeting you.
Keep away from your enemies;
be on your guard with your friends.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;
he who finds one finds a treasure.
A faithful friend is beyond price,
no sum can balance his worth.
A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy,
such as he who fears God finds;
For he who fears God behaves accordingly,
and his friend will be like himself.