What is Friendship? This is a word that has a different meaning to everyone, But let us look at the definition from the dictionary; Friendship is defined as: "affection"- a pure and disinterested feeling that exists between people, stemming from a mutual esteem, appreciation and empathy.
As always, the dictionary refers to the concept, to what the word means, but it is life itself that tells us what it really is. Without any doubt the wonder of life, where it can be best captured and most valued, is inside the person, and the quality that can give them the most joy is their ability to understand, feel and spread that joyful experience of Friendship.
When we talk friendship, we must define the two different concepts of it. First, there is the particular friend; although one can have more then one friend, we cannot forget that each one requires a different approach. In a word each friend requires a " custom-made approach". Secondly, the term "friend" is used in the generic sense. Generically, friend is a word, which like many other words has undergone a certain inflation of its meaning, which has had a affect of lowering the meaning.
In our society, their was a distinction between "acquantance" and "friends". The first of these is rarely used now because both meanings are encompassed today together in the second word "friends". In reality a acquaintance is someone we know, but we have few details about them, we occasionally talk to them and have superficial dealings with them.
A friend is someone that we know intamate details about, we know their wives and there childern. We go out to dinner with them and we may even go to the same church as them, they are a friend that is loveable, approachable and close to us.
Now, putting this into the term of Cursillo, how do we get this level of friendship with someone. First, we go back to study of the enviornment Rollo. We have to see how they react in there enviornmnet, then we pray to our ultimate friend, Christ, to find the best way to reach out to the person so we can get to know them on a deeper level. Then after we make that friend, we have to be a friend, which means we have to trust them and let them into our lives and all this starts with our friendship with Christ and knowing ourselves and through the Love and grace we get from the Lord.
In friendship, what really matters is that we gradually get to understand that our friendship with Christ has to be visible and transparent in our friendly attitude towards others. It is through this concept of friendship that we will maintain the Cursillo movement and to evangelize. It is the Good News of Jesus Christ and change the enviornments that we are in.