Love and Virtue: Paths to Peace (Gospel Topics Series Book 19)

Introduction

Love & Virtue is an important aspect of our life as Catholics, since Love and Virtue consume our whole mind, heart, soul and strength; that is, love and virtue take us from our entrain into the Church to our entrance in to Heaven. Friendship as well as love are two aspects of charity and virtue, which we will treat in various ways in these pages.
This is discussed from a layman’s viewpoint, and no biblical knowledge of ancient languages is required. The author seeks to shed light on these eternal topics that have become so important in our lives today, but at once addressed at the time of the writing of the New Testament. Gospel Topics is a way in which we can study the Bible systematically and thoroughly, while the Gospel has many topics that we would not encounter unless we searched for them, it gives each person the advantage of arriving at a deeper love of God and his Word. We can use Gospel Topics as part of our daily Bible study plan.
Friendship in the Gospel is a central theme uniting all of those who followed the Redeemer while on earth. Let’s be real and believe that it is because Jesus makes friends that we become friends with him. There is nothing we could have done to make this happen. On the other hand, we must do our part, regardless of how little a part that is, to maintain that loving trust with Jesus and cooperating with the Holy Spirit is forming us into the children that God wants us to be before Him.
At the beginning of Aristotle’s treatment of Friendship in the Nichomachean Ethics, he states seven reasons for the importance of the study of friendship. (Aquinas & Litzinger, 1964) First, Aristotle says bond should be regarded as “ virtue.” Friendship is one thing that most accompanies virtue. Take, for example, every few years, athletes gather together for Olympic competition in different parts of the world. It is because of the many years of preparation and competition among one another or as practiced virtue toward their games that they can compete with others. Thru these many years, the one bond that keeps an Olympic team together is their friendship toward their athletic endeavors. The same can be said of religious or monks in a monastery, teachers in a school and missionaries working in a foreign land hoping to convert foreigners to the faith.
Secondly, Aristotle says, “friendship is especially necessary for living. (Aquinas & Litzinger, #1539) Aristotle indicates that associations are important for the young and the old, for the rich and the poor, for the successful and those enduring misfortune. In every way of life, persons view friendship as more important than their accumulated wealth or fame since it is more stable and permanent.
Thirdly, the parents of their offspring create a unique bond between themselves and their children, which is a kind of friendship. People of a race find those which are common among themselves to establish friendships. Even people at different extremes of society create associations if not for virtue, for the purpose for utility. The rich create friends with the poor since it is the poor who help them to accomplish their goals of accumulating wealth and fortune. (Aquinas & Litzinger, 1541)
Fourthly, governments depend upon friendships among legislators in order to govern the States which they oversee and regulate. A society that is well-regulated and at peace is more likely to produce the goods that contribute to the welfare of society; discord destroys the equanimity among members o a State: “One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (The Pledge of Allegiance, 2001)
Fifthly, Aristotle says, “if people are friends there is no need for justice, but just men do need friendship.” (Aquinas & Litzinger, 1543) Friendship is so important that beyond the need for justice, there is a greater need for friends and what they bring to relationships among citizens of the same State.