John O'Callaghan on friendship

The Catholic Thing: We Have Been Friends Together by John O'Callaghan

It is not selfish to desire friends. By nature we have been given the gift of a friendship with all human beings, the friendship of a common destiny – we are on this road together. This gift is the basis of human dignity and rights. In his Commentary on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, St. Thomas Aquinas repeats Aristotle’s claim that there is a natural friendship among all human beings. Aristotle writes, “that is why we praise those who love all human beings [philanthropos]. Certainly in one’s wanderings one will see that every man is an acquaintance and friend of every other man.” And yet St. Thomas adds: “this is most clear when the path is uncertain, for everyone calls back even an unknown and foreign stranger from going the wrong way, as if every man is naturally an acquaintance and a friend of every other man.” The point can and should be taken metaphorically for every course of human action, particularly seeking to understand the world and our place in it. We are friends together travelling along a way, helping each other to move forward and not become lost.