Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

Friendship, for Aelred, is the “medicine of life,” because it ultimately
brings a person into relationship with Christ, who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6). 29 It plays a healing, even
elevating role in the human sojourn. By entering into a true
“spiritual” (as opposed to “carnal”) friendship with another human
being, a person begins a process that will eventually enable
him or her to share in the friendship of Christ. For Aelred,
“…friendship is a stage bordering upon that perfection which
consists in the love and knowledge of God, so that man from being
a friend of his fellowman becomes the friend of God, according
to the words of the Savior in the Gospel: ‘I will not now
call you servants, but my friends.’” 30
Applications
THE HEALING ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP 73
This general theological framework of creation, fall, and redemption
helps one to interpret some of Aelred’s better-known
statements on spiritual friendship. Aelred himself insists that
“…friendship bears fruit in this life and in the next.” 31 The
phrase, “in this life,” implies that friends receive concrete benefits
in the present even though they are still weighed down by the
effects of original sin. The phrase, “in the next,” points to the
time when, on account of Christ’s redemption, they are completely
free from the shackles of concupiscence and live in close
intimate union with God and the communion of saints. By keeping
the distinction between the fruits of friendship clear in one’s
mind, the reader is better able to understand the significance of
Aelred’s teaching on the meaning of the goodness, the three kisses,
and the formation of spiritual friendships.
29 The phrase “A faithful friend is the medicine of life” (Amicus fidelis
medicamentum vitae est) comes from Sir 6:16. See Biblica sacra iuxta vulgatam
versionem ed. Robertus Weber, vol. 2 (Stutgart: Wüettenbergische
Bibelanstalt, 1969), 1036. Aelred refers to it in DSA 2:12; 3: 74, 97[CCCM
1:304(82-83), 332(532), 339(750); SF 72,109,117].
30 DSA 2:14 [CCCM 1:305(104-8);; SF 73].
31 DSA 2:9 [CCCM 1:304(64-65); SF 71].