to contemplate and enjoy the divine beauty that envelops the souls endowed with grace. The beauty produced by sanctifying grace must be conceived not merely as a reflection of the absolute nature of God, who is the pattern-exemplar of all beauty, but more specifically as an image of the Trinity impressed upon the soul. St. Paul teaches that the soul is transformed into an image of the Divine Logos, to whom, as the holy Fathers tell us, beauty is appropriated in an especial manner.(1064) Cfr. Rom. VIII, 29: “Whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son.”(1065) Gal. IV, 19: “My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you.”(1066) In virtue of the adoptive sonship effected by grace,(1067) the soul becomes a true “temple of the Holy Ghost.”(1068) 3. THE FRIENDSHIP OF GOD.—Closely connected with the beauty which sanctifying grace confers, is the supernatural friendship it establishes between God and the soul. True beauty elicits love and benevolence. By nature man is merely a servant of God; in fact, since the fall, he is His enemy. Sanctifying grace transforms this hostile relation into genuine friendship. By grace, says the Council of Trent, “man of unjust becomes just, and of an enemy a friend.”(1069) And again: “Having been thus justified and made the friends and domestics of God.”(1070) God loves the just man as His intimate friend and enables and impels him, by means of habitual grace and habitual charity, to reciprocate that love with all his heart. Here we have the two constituent elements of friendship. The Bible frequently speaks of friendship existing between God and the just. Cfr. Wisd. VII, 14: “They [the just] become the friends of God.”(1071) John XV, 14 sq.: “I will not now call you servants, ... but I have called you friends.”(1072) This friendship is sometimes compared to a mystic marriage. Cfr. Matth. IX, 15: “And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?”(1073) Apoc. XIX, 7: “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself.”(1074) a) Friendship (φιλία), according to Aristotle,(1075) is “the conscious love of benevolence of two persons for each other.” Hence, to constitute friendship, there must be (1) two or more distinct persons; (2) pure love of benevolence _(amor benevolentiae_, not _concupiscentiae_), because only unselfish love can truly unite hearts; (3) mutual consciousness of affection, because without a consciousness of the existing relation on both sides there would be merely one-sided benevolence, not friendship. It follows that true friendship is based on virtue and that a relation not based on virtue can be called friendship in a qualified or metaphorical sense only (_amicitia utilis, delectabilis_).