Pick Your Friends

My mother has some old sayings.

And I know where she got them

Directly from Gramma Curtis; her grandmother, my great-grandmother.

Gramma Curtis died a long time ago, when I was about seven years old.

She was full of sound old rural Kentucky folk wisdom.

She probably picked up her sayings back in the post-Civil War days.

But I’m sure they were already wise old sayings when she first heard them.

Probably passed down from her parents and their parents before that.

One that I heard a few times was:

Pick your friends, don’t let them pick you.

I’m not exactly sure what that means.

If everyone followed that literally and strictly, people could never become friends.

Whenever one person made the first move, the other would have to decline.

So the old saying can’t mean that.

The best I can make of it is:

Be careful that you don’t join up with the wrong person or the wrong crowd.

Think about who you should be friends with, and how they influence the way you live your life.

Either person can make the first move.

But there’s no friendship until you have mutual commitment from both.

In our Scripture readings today, people are being picked.

Peter and the other remaining apostles are looking to fill Judas’ slot.

They have two good men to choose between, but only one slot available.

It’s a pretty prestigious group to join; at least from our perspective today.

But at the time, Matthias’ mother might have warned him that they were a pretty shaky crowd.

In the end, they did pick Matthias, and he let them choose him.

Actually, they asked God to do the picking.

They prayed for guidance and prayed that God would show them the best choice.

And then they decided by drawing lots.

So, in a real sense, God chose Matthias.

Pretty impressive—chosen by God.

Impressive; but not unusual.

In our Gospel, Jesus says to each of us:

I have called you friends.

It was not you who chose me but I who chose you.

It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the root of the old saying Gramma Curtis passed along.

Jesus, Son of God, King of the Universe—God Himself—has chosen us to be his friends.

Even more than that; he first chose to create us; brought our spirits into being from nothingness.

And now he’s calling us his friends.

He’s made his picks; he’s made the first couple moves.

There’s no question that this is a good friendship for us.

He’s always going to be a good influence on us.

He’ll always encourage us and draw out the best in us.

All he’s looking for now is for us to make that wise choice.
To make that mutual commitment to the friendship.

Tuesday of 7th Week of Easter

Jn 15:9-17                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org