The Virtue of Friendliness

this is bishop john durfler of the diocese of marquette dear sisters and brothers in christ in the last message in this series we considered how friends give hope in this and the next two messages let us reflect on how we build relationships that are fertile ground for us to introduce our friend to jesus in this message we will reflect on the first step the virtue of friendliness am basing these reflections on saint thomas aquinas the virtue of friendliness consists of the consistent behavior of relating to each other with the words and deeds that are outward signs of friendship this behavior is rooted in the respect we owe each other because of our equal human dignity thus we can approach others even complete strangers in pleasing manner cheery hello smile friendly wave compliment or word of gratitude being friendly means being polite and courteous just as my parents always taught me to say please and thank you we are friendly when we hold the door open for someone allow someone else to go ahead of us in line or engage in the yuper custom at the mackinac bridge of paying the toll for the person behind us being friendly means spreading positive attitude expressed in the words for example keep calm and euberone friendliness brightens the other person's day with ray of joy friendliness raises others up instead of dragging them down this kind of behavior is the building block of friendship who after all wants to be friends with someone who is sourpuss grumpy negative quarrelsome bitter or disagreeable friendliness is opposed to the false praise uttered by people to butter us up to get what they want the empty compliments that do not truly help us or worst of all the praise or acceptance of evil deeds it is important to be deliberate about practicing friendliness the more we do so the more it becomes second nature to us we then become friendly and easily relate to others in this way it is good to have plan to be friendly for example when go to the grocery store today will smile at other people let someone else go before me in the checkout line and wish the checkout clerk great weekend deliberately plan how you will be friendly when you use social media imagine what difference we can make if all our social media interactions are marked by friendliness following jesus who desires to be our friend let our interactions with others radiate friendliness this is bishop john derfler of the diocese of marquette