Recovering Jesus as ‘friend’
Richard Leonard SJ puts religious language to the test and finds it wanting, in his most recent book The Law of Love. In this latest in a series of interviews about the book with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications, he turns to the beatitudes (gospel of Matthew chapter 5: 3-12). He says that he wanted to update some of the language and suggest some modern applications for this powerful gospel teaching.
In doing so he talks about those who fight for justice and are pilloried on social media, and those who go to the barricades and find that God is standing with them.
He also suggests that we discover again the richness of referring to Jesus as a ‘friend’. He says it’s a mulit-layered, resonant image but its import has been lost in more recent times.
