Friends: A Support in the Whirlpool of Struggle

Fr. Scott Haynes

“God sends us friends to be our firm support in the whirlpool of struggle. In the company of friends, we will find strength to attain our sublime ideal.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe did not speak these words from the comfort of theory. He spoke them as a man who had stared into the abyss of human cruelty and discovered there the luminous power of charity. His life, crowned by martyrdom in Auschwitz, reveals a profound truth: holiness is not a solitary ascent. God, who made us for communion, sends companions for the journey.

Scripture confirms this wisdom again and again.

“It is better therefore that two should be together, than one: for they have the advantage of their society” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).

The spiritual life is a climb, often steep and treacherous. Alone, the soul grows weary. Together, souls lift one another upward. As the sacred writer adds with realism,

“If one fall, he shall be supported by the other: woe to him that is alone” (Ecclesiastes 4:10).

Kolbe describes life as a “whirlpool of struggle,” a striking image. A whirlpool pulls downward with relentless force. Sin, temptation, fear, discouragement, and suffering swirl around the soul, threatening to drag it under. The Psalmist knew this experience well: “

Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul” (Psalm 68:2).

In such moments, God does not always still the waters. Instead, He extends a hand through friendship.

Christ Himself chose this way. Though He is God, He did not walk alone. He called the Apostles friends, not servants.

“I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

In Gethsemane, as the weight of the Passion pressed upon His soul, He asked Peter, James, and John to remain with Him. Even the Son of God desired companionship in suffering. Love seeks presence, especially when the hour is dark.

Kolbe learned this lesson deeply. In the Franciscan friary and later in the horrors of the concentration camp, he formed communities of prayer, encouragement, and sacrifice. Witnesses recall how he strengthened others with words of hope, shared his meager rations, and drew souls toward Our Lady. In this he lived the exhortation of the Apostle:

“Comfort ye one another, and edify one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Friendship, for Kolbe, was never sentimental. It was sacrificial.

True spiritual friendship does not flatter or distract. It calls the soul higher.

“Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).

Kolbe understood that friends are sent not merely to comfort us, but to help us attain our “sublime ideal,” union with God through love. Such friends remind us, when we forget, that we are made for heaven.

That ideal shaped every breath of his life. “Only love creates,” he wrote, and love is learned in relationship. A holy friend reflects God’s mercy, challenges mediocrity, and gently urges fidelity.

Scripture praises such friendship plainly:

“A faithful friend is a strong defence: and he that hath found him, hath found a treasure” (Ecclesiasticus 6:14).

Such friendships become channels of grace, quietly forming saints.

Kolbe’s own final act was the supreme expression of friendship. In offering his life for another man, he fulfilled the words of Christ:

“Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Even in death, he strengthened others. The whirlpool could not claim him, because love had already lifted him beyond its reach.

This meditation invites us to gratitude and responsibility. Gratitude for the friends God has sent to steady us when faith trembles. Responsibility to become such friends ourselves.

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

In a world marked by isolation and spiritual exhaustion, holy friendship is a quiet form of resistance.

Let us ask St. Maximilian Kolbe to teach us how to walk together toward heaven. May we recognize God’s hand in the friends who pray for us, correct us, and stand beside us in suffering. And may we, in turn, become firm supports for others, until all of us reach that sublime ideal for which we were created: love without fear, and communion without end.