It is for the gifts of charity into the house of thy faithful. Grant health of mind and body to thy servants for whom we entreat thy clemency. Let me love thee with all thy strength and accomplish with perfect love what through our Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. On the other side, she's gone. About 20 minutes left. We have to continue a little bit. We have started the last time when we spoke. It's already 5 o'clock. about Cicero's Hermeticia. Hermeticia.

[01:05]

As you remember, I was kind of materially panic-stricken, as I am most of the time. Anyhow, even if you don't realize it, materially that's the way. So, then, Ernst Thaler tried to develop, you know, just the idea of Cicero and Cicero's approach, but I must say that, and later, the other parts on any connection with the friendship, Christian idea of friendship that, you know, that was rather sketchy, to say the least. It probably always will be sketchy and one can never really and truly you know, adequately express these things.

[02:12]

If I may just, you know, a little refresh your memory. You remember, Shih Tzu, I was thinking of it when yesterday night in the chant practice we have this, the third line, you know, which kind of breaks out in a higher and in a new dimension. Now in some way that is a picture also of friendship and especially of friendship in which in the sense in which Cicero approaches his theme and I emphasized it last time, quite true, from a really contemplative point of view, contemplative in the wider sense of that word, that means rising to the very splendor of the phenomenon which he wants to describe, rising to that splendor, to the inner freedom

[03:16]

of a truly noble soul, which therefore is capable of fixing the inner eye, not only the inner eye, of the intellect, of all the senses that realize value upon this phenomenon of friendship. That is what Cicero does in such a beautiful way. He does not approach it, in other words, as a psychiatrist. He does not approach it with the eyes of a scientist. That means bound to, from the very beginning, to a lower level of reality. And then from there trying to work up his way, you know, to the spiritual things which then at best, you know, end up as sublimations of something lower. is such a questionable term and idea, concept, in every way.

[04:25]

To my mind, frankly, rather apt to obscure the object than to let it out. One must, as Goethe says, there must be sunshine in the eye of the one who sees the sun. And that is also here in all these things, in all really truly great human things and human values. Those values which make our human life really ennobled and constitute its true inimitable value. The eye has to be full of sun, sun of the inner sense, you know. spiritual higher values, in order to even discover. And that is the beautiful thing in Cicero, that he approaches this thing, of course, led on by the tradition in which it stands, the first Greek, Remus and Romans,

[05:32]

In this way he approaches and at the first contact with what we call friendship, immediately he states general sphere, the field in which this friendship only can be found. that friendship cannot exist except among good men. And therefore right away see that leads him turn to into the idea of the good, leads him into the inner splendor of friendship. Then from there he rises immediately beyond the natural or physical level first. by saying that friendship is not the same as relationship, kingship in that way, I mean in the physical sense.

[06:41]

Because the form of friendship contains, and that is the other, let us say, vision and intuition, which is so important, contains the unique element of what we call benevolentia. Benevolentia, goodwill. Relationship can be without benevolentia. Friendship cannot be without it. And then this benevolentia is then in friendship something rare, something of a higher quality. It's not simply, let us say, the similarity and likeness of nature in which the whole human race or all human individuals as such would be bound together. In the likeness of the human nature, though friendship is something rare, something higher, therefore, something, a benevolentia, which is not, doesn't bind the millions, but which is found, as he says then, between two, or at most a few,

[08:04]

And there, of course, he singles out this fact to show that friendship has a special inner splendor. It has a rarity of value. It's not something that is common to the species. but rests, therefore, on unique personal individual qualities and attractions that he what we call then really in the end, love. And then after he has stated, that's then the description that then shines for that splendid, beautiful definition. Friendship is nothing else than an inner accord in all things. Consensual, but consensual in the comprehensive meaning of that word.

[09:10]

Very good into the English. Accord, the accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined or embedded in mutual benevolentia and caritas. And this inner relation scares very well. and therefore only in the higher, let us say, levels of personal being it is found, this inner relation transcends in inner value, in inner beauty, the world of riches, and that of health, and the field of power, and that of honors, and that of pleasures, These latter, the highest aim, only the highest aim, Only of brutes, the others unstable witches, Yield power, honor, unstable fleeting,

[10:18]

less upon human foresight than upon the fickleness of fortune, as he says. Why, friendship belongs to those. Now what is that higher level on which the two or the few gathered together in that unique inner communication, that level is virtue. Virtue is, as one could say, the halo of friendship, or as Cicero says, is the parent and the preserver of friendship. Virtus. And these virtues then, he describes, and then again, what is that? It is of course not, needless to say, the twisted, you know, and the exaggerated virtue of the stoics, but it is the virtue that we find as human quality.

[11:28]

between men, not as a matter of artificial training, but as a matter of inner quality, of inner being. And then, of course, virtue is in itself something unlovable. when we realize that is what makes, as when he now describes the advantages of friendship, describes it as the thing that makes vita vitalis, that means that means that makes life worth living. that is the life worth living. He says, Que in amici mutua benevolentia conquiescit, is the life which reposes reposes on the mutual goodwill of a friend.

[12:33]

Reposes. That is a term which we can later also in later philosophies of friendship, or friendship also in our days, especially in those authors which formed an opposition to the existentialism of certain people like that. find that, you know, that this quality of friendship that it is, can rest. Friendship is only there where life can rest, repose. Ere upon the mutual goodwill of friends. Quick do choose what is sweeter than to have someone with whom you may dare to discuss anything as if you were communing with yourself. That is, that inner quiet, inner trust that binds friends together, which takes down the barriers, and where we commune with another as if we would with ourselves.

[13:42]

We dare to discuss anything as if we were communing with ourselves. And then this kind of friendship adds a brighter radiance to prosperity and lessens the burden of adversity by dividing and sharing it. And then from there he continues, leads back. The oftener, therefore, I reflect on friendship, the more it seems to me that consideration should be given question whether the longing of friendship is felt on account of weakness and want, so that by the giving and receiving of favours one may get from another an internal repay what he isn't. Quid dulcius?

[14:43]

What is sweeter than to have someone with whom you may dare to discuss anything as if you were communing with yourself? That is, that inner, quiet inner trust that binds friends together, which takes down the barriers, and where we commune with another as if we would with ourselves. We dare to discuss anything as if we were communing with ourselves. And then this kind of friendship adds a brighter radiance to prosperity and lessens the burden of adversity by dividing and sharing it. Then from there he continues, leads back. The oftener, therefore, I reflect on friendship, the more it seems to me that consideration should be given to the question whether the longing of friendship is felt on account of weakness and want,

[16:01]

so that by the giving and receiving of favours one may get from another an internal repay what he is not able to procure of himself, or, although this mutual interchange is really inseparable from friendship, whether there is not another cause older and more beautiful. So here again, now he transcends in the field of utility, as we said the last time. That is, you know, again what the inner, let us say, inner contemplative start, let us say, what is sun-like, in the eye of the one who focuses on this phenomenon of which it opens up. It enables him to rise beyond nature, beyond the physical, and rises beyond utility and practicalities.

[17:05]

And there, then, that corresponds to the very nature of friendship. Mutual interchange is really inseparable from friendship, but there is not another cause older and more beautiful, antiquer and pulcher, and that is love, from which the word amicizia is derived. And that leads to the establishing of the benevolentia. In friendship there is nothing false, nothing pretended. Whatever there is, is genuine and comes of its own accord. And therefore, he says, it seems that friendship springs rather from nature than from need. And what is, of course, nature is, we see the subject of Hamburg, an inclination of the soul, joined with a feeling of love,

[18:13]

rather than from calculation of profit. The root of friendship, therefore, is this natural love, an inclination of the soul joined with the feeling of love, rather than from calculation and profit. Therefore, a spontaneous state. And this spontaneity, which in Cicero's mind, I mean, through love, connects friendship with nature, and therefore removes it from everything merely utilitarian. It's nothing, let us say, artificial. That then leads to, and friendship is not simply identical with amor, with this amor naturalis, but is a flowering of it. And the flowering is done in the, one can say, sphere of the benevolentia, the goodwill. the kindred impulse of love which arises when once we have met someone, now is described by Cicero how he thinks, how he considers this benevolentia growing in the soul, out of the arbor.

[19:32]

the kindred impulse of love, that is the foundation, let us say the natural foundation, the very natura of man, which arises when once we have met someone whose habits and character are congenial with our own, because in him we seem to behold, as it were, a sort of lamp of uprightness and virtue. Provitatis et virtutis. So that is the proper, let us say, element or field of the Benevolentia. Benevolentia develops between men in the realm and in the inspiration of probitas and virtus. Men's souls are stirred up when they think, that is the way he describes this Benevolentia arising and growing.

[20:40]

when they think they see clearly the virtue and goodness of those with whom a close intimacy is possible. And yet, love is further strengthened by the receiving of a kindly service, by the evidence of another's care for us, and by closer familiarity And from all those, when joined to the soul's first impulse to love, there springs up, under the influence of provitas and virtue admired and shared and put to one another's service, there springs up, if I may say so, a marvelous glow and greatness of goodwill. admirabilis quedam ex artesit benevolentiae omnitudo.

[21:45]

That is the beautiful description of that heart of friendship as he sees it. Between good men on the level and on the basis of nature, that means nothing artificial, genuine values their rises through mutual celebration of providence and virtue, and their mutual sharing and service, this admirabilis quedam benevolentia magnitude, a marvellous glow and greatness of goodwill. So that, and that is of course then what makes this sound foundation is what in Cicero's eyes then makes friendship eternal. He says, Nam si utilitas, conglutinaret amicicias, eadem commutata dissolveret.

[22:47]

If utility, practicality, were to be the bond of friendship, then, if the utility is gone, the friendship naturally is at an end. Se quia natura mutabilum potest, in circo vere amicizie eternesum. But because the basis of nature does never change, therefore true friendships are eternal. So that is, just in summary, the bestiary of what Cicero as a representative of the antiquity of Greek, Roman antiquity with all that, let's say, splendor and nobility of true humanness, you know, says about French. Now, last time then, I wanted, but I was not able to do it really, to go from there, just to let us throw a glance from there to Holy Scripture.

[24:01]

And there, of course, you all are familiar with it. I wanted to invite you all yourself, maybe, to read it and to think about it. Take in the Old Testament, then, the famous example of friendship, the arch-example of friendship, which belongs into this whole field. And that is in the first book of Samuel. I think it's here called First Kings. First book of Samuel, of Kings. There is chapter 18. Chapter 18, there it begins. Jonathan's friendship with David. Let us just maybe repeat. Death of the Holy Spirit. Let us try to, I hate to say analyze it, but just to see what it is, what there, what takes place in there, and what is French.

[25:04]

And there I just read it to you. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would not let him return to his father's house. And David and Jonathan made a covenant, for he loved him as his own son. And Jonathan stripped himself of the coat with which he was clothed, and gave it to David. and the rest of his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. And David went out to whatsoever business Saul sent him, and he behaved himself prudently.

[26:14]

And then Saul set him over the soldiers. He was acceptable in the eyes of all the people, especially the eyes of Saul's servants. No, that is the beginning of it. That is the first act, so to speak. And as in every story, you can always see that in the Old Testament, where a scene or a story begins, that is right away, is, let us say, initiated, is begun, under the sign of the Old. in a way and to an act, you know, which, not always, I must say, but very often, which comprises, which shows immediately, let's say, the whole story. Now here, that is done naturally by this. David and Jonathan made a covenant. He loved him as his own soul. And then Jonathan stripped himself of the coat with which he was clothed and gave it to David and the rest of his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle.

[27:25]

Now this scene or this action anticipates the entire thing that follows and contains in this symbolic action the whole essence of this friendship which is here between Jonathan and Dave. And of course now one has to keep in mind what is the situation. There is Saul. Jonathan is the son of Saul. Jonathan is the crown prince. He is the successor of Saul. And there is David. And David is the son of Jesse, you see, the son of Isaiah, of Jesse. And as such, he has been anointed. He is therefore God's chosen one, you see. And Jonathan is naturally, is the one who would be, as it were, in, if you could,

[28:34]

is naturally is the one who would follow so therefore it is in some way you know there is that a very difficult situation humanly speaking there is of course the situation of a certain of the competition between the two and that comes to the fore in chapter twenty chapter 20 where then you see the situation has become so that Saul turns completely against David. Hence that enmity of Saul, Saul who is the rejected one, that enmity between Saul and David grows beyond the point of reconciliation. And therefore the end of it can only be because David is the one who is God's chosen one.

[29:42]

He is the one with whom the grace of God is. And all that, it will be the undoing, it will be the catastrophe for Saul and for his house. And therefore also in that way for John. Now, in chapter 20, we see that Jonathan, of course, has always the hope that that day, that soul, that the situation can still be reconciled, can still be healed. But in chapter 20, then it becomes evident that it cannot. Now, what Jonathan, of course, has done in this pact of friendship with David is that he took off his garment. And his garment, of course, as we know from the Orient, that is his dignity. So he, the son of Saul, in that way, the son of the rejected one,

[30:50]

goes over to David, to the Chosen One, to God's Anointed One. He takes off his own dignity. He resigns his rights as a conclave. And by giving everything to David, he recognizes David as the one who is the future King of Israel. And then comes, but the conflict between the two, between Saul and David, comes to the point where Saul is determined on killing David. And that, of course, puts Jonathan then into a terrible inner conflict. What is he going to do? And then he comes at the end of God, he says, you know, David turns to Jonathan and he says, and that is also in view of what later happens with our Lord, who is the son of Jesse, of the New Testament, the true son of Jesse,

[32:04]

is very significant, he says, if I have done anything evil against Saul, I am completely ready to suffer for justice sake and to suffer punishment and to suffer death. But, of course, in that way, David is the innocent one. And Saul is dominated by what we call, this mysterium iniquitatis, what we call causeless hatred. Hatred without reason. It's that what later on works and what we can see, the crying and shouting in the presence of Pontius Pilate, Cucifija, Cucifija. Not him we want to have released, but Barabbas. That is the voice of what Holy Scripture always called this mysterious and causeless patron, which is the uttermost opposite, contrary to the absolute destruction of friendship.

[33:16]

and that causal sacred we can see here has taken a hold of soul and soul of course then decides on the death of death and then when the two come together in chapter 20 in order to let us say discuss this situation. David is the one who has the more realistic view, you know, and he says, no, it is impossible. If I go and come in to see your father, it will be my death. He will kill me. and therefore then Jonathan shall bring him word. And there Jonathan rises in that situation then, which is the critical situation, that, let us say, makes full, or that is the fulfillment of the change of clothing. When Jonathan then in the 13th verse of chapter 20

[34:23]

says, if my father shall continue in malice against thee, that is, that causeless hatred, shall continue in malice against thee, then I will discover it to thy ear. So Jonathan interiorly renounces any contact with the causeless hatred of the one whom God has rejected. And he goes further, and he says, and I will send thee away that thou mayest be in peace, the Lord be with thee. That means he blesses David. As he has been with my father. That means he hands over, as it were, the royal spirit, you know, of his father, which, of course, in which he shares, you know, Jonathan, to the Lord. The Lord be with thee as he has been with my father.

[35:30]

And if I live Please show me the kindness, the goodness, the chen, the graciousness of the Lord." And therefore there, Jonathan, really the crown prince, wrote then, recommends himself into the mercy of the son of Jesse. And that is the inner change of garment, you know, inner, interiorly, in his heart. And in that way he seals, as it were, that covenant. And do not take away thy kindness from my house forever. And that, of course, is repeated, you know, in The Friend, Our Lord. And I only say that, and I recommended it to your reading, but this is the picture, let us say, of the friendship in which we all stand, in which we all have a part.

[36:43]

to this chapter and to this friendship our Lord refers later in the Gospel of Saint John and that is in the 15th chapter there he speaks in verse 12 and the following about his friendship this is my commandment let you love one another as I have loved you greater love than this no one has than one laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things I command you. No longer do I call you servants because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends because all things that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. So the Lord shares, is bet, the inner mystery of his heart with them.

[37:51]

Hence, the story of Jonathan, of course, shows, in that way, is so important, is a prophecy, shows the only possible way how the Israel, according to the flesh, can be connected, joined together, that means, liberated from the claws of causeless hatred. connected and joined together with the chosen one from the root of Jesse. Of course, but you realize that these two things stand as it were for two orders. the Israel according to the flesh and Saul Saul became king why? because he was such a magnificent person he was one or two feet higher than everybody else in Israel you know so he was a great one and therefore they wanted him as their king and then comes the other one there is God's chosen

[39:06]

representing, as it were, the order of grace, the order of divine mercy, the order of divine love. And then it's that beautiful thing you see that in Jonathan and David, in the friendship between Jonathan and David, it is shown how the Israel of the flesh, that means in the wider thing, natural man, you see, joins into the new friendship that the Son of Jesse, the true Son of Jesse, our Lord Jesus Christ, gives, is, as it were. And that is of course what the disciples of Christ, they follow the example of John. And they bear with the hatred of the Jews, just as Jonathan is insulted by his father, because he takes the side of David.

[40:13]

Insults him. And there, the disciples do the same. They join the true son of Jesse. Every man, of course, is by nature on the side of Saul, and he persecutes the chosen one. But the latter Christ, the Word of God made man, a son who becomes a slave and becomes one of us, that gives us the possibility to come to his side. and to exchange our life for his in a truly eternal friendship and of course more the Lord does more he does as the true son of Jesse what David was not able to do he is the true son of Jesse our Lord Jesus Christ and what David was not able to do he did

[41:26]

that in our stead, Jesus, the true son of Jesse, becomes the rejected one. Becomes the rejected one. And in this deep love, he gives his life for his friends. and he establishes then that exchange. The exchange which consists in this, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God made man, takes on, takes the place of the rejected one. takes on the likeness of the flesh of sin, and heals his life as such, gives his life, that through him we may live. So in that way, it is so that Christ, you know, the Son of God, takes that exchange of clothing, as one may say, you know,

[42:31]

but it is so that the clothing that our Lord Jesus Christ receives is not the crown princess, you know, garment of glory but it is the garment of the ones who are, that's Jonathan of course too, is the son of the rejected one belong to the race of the first Adam fallen in him And that is what our Lord Jesus Christ takes on. That garment, our garment, he takes on. And then if this garment dies for us, takes therefore, as Jonathan gives to David, his rights as crown prince and recognizes him as the one who is God's chosen one on Israel's throne. Our Lord Jesus Christ takes the garment of the rejected one, dies, and in this way then, you see, exchanges, gives us then the garment of the crown prince.

[43:45]

That means the participation in his risen nature, in his risen humanity. And that is the seal of friendship. And that is, of course, in everyone, that is the way in which we also imitate, then, the example of Jonathan. You can see there completely different dimensions. This is not anymore the friendship, let us say, which reigns in the realm of the good ones. where one admires mutual virtue, that benevolentia, which rises because the other one has such probitas, and the other one has such strength of character, and the other one is really in every way an excellent man. And there, in that, let us say, realm of glory, then, exaudescet, there begins to glow that tremendous glow of the Benevolentia.

[44:51]

That is, of course, here not. You must just... I can't... I'm incapable of really explaining that, but do it yourself, think about it, you know, parallels, penetrate into that difference, and see what really the essence of the divine friendship, of the Christian friendship in that way is, and also of the monastic friendship, you see. The monastic friendship is, we must always keep that in mind, you know, that there are also between us, we could not really live in a bond of friendship, you see. For example there, this inner exchange of that friendship with which the Lord loves every one of us, would not take place among ourselves. We must act in that level, you see. Take the other one, carry one another's burden, and in this way you fulfill the law of your great friend, the law of Christ.

[46:00]

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