Jesus says, "I call you my friend."

With all respect to our Wheaten Terrier, Kaylee, I don't think my dog is my best friend. And certainly not my BFF. In the language of texting, BFF means "Best Friend Forever." Kaylee is not even in the running for BFF. Then again, when I drive up the driveway, nobody else jumps to the window sill and wags their tail. Don't contemplate that too deeply.

I certainly understand the bond between owner and pet. Maybe Bill's dog was his best friend at a point in his life. At least the bond was present. Here's the scenario: It is January 2002 and Bill had lost his job. As a result, he and his wife are obliged to leave their home of eight years. As they are moving into a smaller house in Westchester, somebody leaves the storm door ajar and out bolts the dog. He bounds down the front steps and races down the street and into the busy traffic of the main road. A driver swerves but the dog is hit and is killed. And now Bill is sitting on the curb sobbing.

I know this story only second-hand, from a trusted friend, who was talking the other day with Bill's neighbor. The neighbor had heard the commotion at the corner, and hurried to the busy intersection. He walked up to Bill and said, "Bill, are you okay"? "No. I am not okay; but I will be okay." Normally such a story wouldn't make even the back pages of the local paper, but this became front page news around the world. The reason is simple: Bill is the forty-second president of these United States, William Jefferson Clinton. Sitting on the curb - sobbing for the loss of his dog. "Bill, are you okay"? And because of one man's concern for another, a relationship, a friendship was forged.

Any of you ever think what it might be like to be neighbors with the Clintons? I wondered that when they first moved to Chappaqua. I'm thinking if I were a neighbor, at least I could disarm my home security system. Whose going to mess with my house with agents of the Secret Service hanging around? Bill's neighbor told my friend that the Clinton's socialize a bit in the cul-de-sac. Occasionally they invite neighbors over for a barbecue; and vice-versa. What a hoot to call your brother-in-law, for instance, "Oh, by the way, we're grilling steaks tonight and we've invited the neighbors - the Secretary of State and her husband." I imagine the same thing happening in Dallas, among the new neighbors of George and Laura Bush.

I've had my brushes with celebrity - and I'm guessing some of you have too. I shook hands with Lawrence Taylor at a rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike. At dinner one night, I sat a table away from Sinatra. One afternoon at Mass in St. Peter's Square, I sat a few rows from the preacher, Pope John Paul II. And maybe my greatest claim of proximity to fame was shaking hands with my hero, Gene Autrey. But these were mere brushes with celebrity. Even as a six-year old shaking hands with Gene Autrey, I sensed we would never be friends. Why would I choose to be friends with an aging cowboy?

Thirteen men sit around the dinner table in an upper room. It is to be the last night of life for two of them. Two of the thirteen will die the very next day. The Savior and his traitor. Jesus will be dead for a three-day weekend; Judas, perhaps for eternity. Perhaps. Later that same evening, Simon Peter, arguably the disciple who was closest to Jesus, Simon Peter says three times, "I do not know the man." The rooster crows ... and Peter weeps bitterly. He is not okay; but in a way he could not begin to comprehend, he will be okay. Thirteen men. A Leader and twelve followers. One will betray; one will deny. And yes, a third would make himself so scarce that he never gets the news three days later that Jesus, his late Leader, is no longer late.

Thirteen men around the dinner table and Jesus looks at the other twelve. What must Jesus think about his followers? The men he himself hand-picked? What he thinks, we do not know. What he says is recorded for all time. He says, "You are my friends." These are men who misunderstand him; who will deny him; who will betray him; who will forsake him. They are not okay, these friends, but they will be.

Nutritionists talk about the food groups necessary for good physical health, but beyond fruits and vegetables, vitamins and protein, equally important for a healthy life is the nutrition of friendship. And what a friend they have in Jesus!

It's interesting the ones Jesus chose to be his disciples ... his followers. They were not stuffy folks, holier-than-thou. For the most part, Jesus picks rough and tumble fishermen who probably missed religious services as often as they attended, so busy were they trying to put food on the table. And Jesus calls them friends. And most of them take that friendship and run with it - all the way into the Kingdom! They are not perfect; nor do they have to be. They were men's men, who presumably happen to love people more than religious rules and regulations. And with Jesus as the Cornerstone, these men began a movement, a Church, which has endured these 2,000 years. Though it sometimes seems a bit far-fetched, when the Church is at the top of her game, it is a true Community of Friends - worshipping one God and reaching out to all neighbors.

And Jesus chooses us as friends. "You did not choose me," says Jesus, but I chose you." I suppose we sometimes feel just as unworthy as his first disciples, but I take comfort in this anonymous observation, "Jesus does not call the qualified; Jesus qualifies the called."

On the Temple Mount in Jerusalem stands the Dome of the Rock, a great shrine of Islam, built in 691AD. High on the exterior wall, in beautiful Arabic script, are these words: "There is no God but Allah, and Abraham is his friend." What a lofty honor for Abraham! Well, six-hundred-and-ninety-one years earlier, Jesus laid that same claim upon his disciples. He called them friends. A lofty honor for them ... and for latter day disciples like us.

An Irish priest sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. The priest says to the man, "You must be very close to God." The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, "Yes, God's very fond of me."

This is what the parents and Godparents will be reminding Aiden Jacob in the wake of his Baptism. They will be making promises on his behalf: "bring him to church, teach him the faith, give him a Bible, nurture his faith ... and so on. And in addition to all of this, they will be constantly reminding him, "Aiden, Jesus is very fond of you; he calls you his friend." The hope is that Aiden will live, and act, as if he believes it!

As we meander our way through life, the Church consistently and constantly reminds us of this same baptismal heritage. Jesus is very fond of us; Jesus is our friend. What a wonderful thing to be in this community of friends. Especially if one of those friends happens to be famous ... the Savior of the world! Not only a famous friend, but Best Friend Forever. Assuring us at those times we are not okay ... that we will be okay!