Implikacje eklezjologiczne doktryny o przyjaźni św. Tomasza z Akwinu w perspektywie roku kapłańskiego

Abstract

The significance of friendship was appreciated by a number of remarkable thinkers. In Greek Antiquity one of those was Aristotle: two books of his Nicomachean Ethics, as well as vast fragments from his other works, are focused on this issue. According to the Stagirite, every man is striving for self-fulfilment thus is striving for happiness. Therefore, every human person, as humans are by nature social beings, needs friends, since such fulfilment is possible only in the relationship with other people. Among non-Christian thinkers of Antiquity who wrote in Latin, Cicero requires our special attention. One of his philosophic dialogues - Laelius de amicitia - is focused on friendship. In this dialogue, which was very popular in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, friendship is considered as a special bond that connects only good people and emerges under the influence of natural need of love and kindness. St. Thomas’ doctrine of friendship, when closely scrutinized, strongly emphasizes the importance of the very same values defended later by the representatives of one of the main streams of modem philosophy, i.e. personalism. Personalistic principle as categorical imperative, formulated by Karol Wojtyła, claims that a human person cannot be used as a means to achieve other people’s goals. Analysing Aquina’s thought we observe that precisely his doctrine of friendship the abovementioned rule fully applies to. A friend for St. Thomas ought to be loved in a totally unselfish way which excludes any form of utilitarian or hedonistic treatment of a person who is the object of love. St. Thomas stated that having friends is a necessary condition for experiencing real happiness in temporal life: „felix indiget amicis” May all the faithful be able to experience such happiness - in the Church and through the Church. May all the priests experience it in a special way during the sacerdotal year. As they draw joy from the fact of being called friends by Jesus (cf. Jn. 15,15).