I cannot be who I want to be by myself alone. We might be tempted to try to deny our loneliness and tough it out alone. But social beings that we are, we cannot grow into the loving persons we are meant to be without the give and take with others that gradually rubs off our rough edges. Love is not an abstraction. We learn love through our concrete interactions, and that includes mistakes and hurts, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Good friends are our companions on the road to holiness.
God is not love in the abstract. Here too we learn that the love among good friends is neither jealous nor exclusive. For the love within the Holy Trinity overflows out into the world sending Jesus Christ to extend God's Hand in friendship to each of us. It's not only our friendship with God that is religious. All good friendships are sacred.