Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

something more than a mediated encounter and sighs for direct
contact with Christ through intellectual “kiss of grace.” 41 When
this happens, “…all earthly affections have been tempered, and
all thoughts and desires which savor of the world have been quieted,
the soul takes delight in the kiss of Christ alone and rests
in his embrace, exulting and exclaiming: ‘His left hand is under
my head and his right hand shall embrace me.’” 42
Friendship, for Aelred, is the “medicine of life” because it
moves two people along this wide spectrum of relationships and
enables them eventually to meet Christ face to face. It calms
their disordered passions, enables their spirits to mingle, and
eventually brings them to an intimate relationship with the Spirit
of Christ. All of this is possible because of Christ’s redemptive
suffering. By laying down his life for his friends, Jesus gives human
beings the chance once again to become the friends of God.
Because of Christ, charity and friendship are slowly coming
back into harmony with one another. If they presently appear to
still be in dissonance with each other, it is simply because the
full effects of Christ’s redemption are not yet manifest. When
they become so, “… this friendship, to which here we admit but
few, will be outpoured upon all and by all outpoured upon God,
and God shall be all in all.” 43
Application Three: Practical Advice
THE HEALING ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP 77
Aelred’s interest in providing concrete measures to help others
establish and develop strong friendships in Christ stems
from his consciousness of the great caution and care that needs
to be taken in an imperfect world still under the sway of the effects
of Adam’s fall. Even though he firmly believes in the victory
won for humanity by Christ suffering and death, he is still
very conscious of the struggle with temptation and the tendency
to sin that even good people must deal with in their daily lives.
41 DSA 2:27 [CCCM 1:308(198); SF 77].
42 DSA 2:27 [CCCM 1:308(199-203); SF 77].
43 DSA 3:134 [CCCM 1:350(1116-18); SF 132].