Who Was the Bad Friend?

One of my best friends was ordained a couple of months ago. That was something else.

He wasn't always a good friend. Or was it I who wasn’t a good friend? Not really sure who’s to blame. 

In any case, we didn't always get along really well.

The funny thing, I started off with a great respect and admiration for him, since I had already seen him at work from afar. Then we had the chance to work together … a lot, and really closely.

It’s amazing how many things you learn about a person when you spend so much time together, any married couple will attest to that. I put him in a box pretty quickly. And I didn't want to let him out. 

Why do we do that? Well, more often than not it’s because we don’t really know the other person. We’ll be talking more about that later. But there is another reason that comes with certain regularity: pride. 

Sometimes our problem is that we just don’t want to accept the way others are or the way we are, because that accepting implies recognizing that they have strong points that maybe we don’t have. With this particular brother, it seemed like he does everything right, does it better than I do, and he knows it too. And sometimes I got really upset. I mean the type of upset where you want to strangle someone. 

But I worked on it. A lot. And I’m sure he did too. With time and a lot of patience and a true desire to know the other and understand him, you start to see not only your differences but also how much you have in common. Right up along-side all those negative traits is a whole slew of positive qualities waiting to be discovered. 

Needless to say, he’s one of my best friends now. I still get upset at him, but nobody ever said that's not a part of friendship. And now he’s a priest, so I even got to go to confession with him. Boy, had I missed out on a lot if I hadn't opened my mind and my heart to his friendship!

By David Yep