Sirach 6:5-17

Let those who are friendly with you be many,
but let your advisers be one in a thousand...
Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter:
whoever finds one has found a treasure.
Faithful friends are beyond price;
no amount can balance their worth.
Faithful friends are life-saving medicine;
and those who fear the Lord will find them. (Sirach 6:6,14-16)

We are to love God and all our neighbors

Yet Jesus had Mary, Martha, and his apostles. Paul had Timothy and Luke. David and Jonathon were great friends.

Too often love of humanity in general seems to detract from our love for specific men and women.

We are not called to exclude, but we are called to celebration and faithfulness for the particular loves that bless our lives.

The picture is of David and Jonathon.