"Today this scripture passage is
fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4: 21 -30
1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:13
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013022.cfm
You may be old enough to remember the wildly popular Oscar nominee movie of the early 1970’s entitled: “Love Story.” Whether you are or not that movie starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neil reflected all the emotion both in joy and sadness that love between two people can bring. It was basically a contemporary Romeo and Juliet story. Two people from very different backgrounds meet and fall in love, then tragedy hits in the death of one. Yet, it is best remembered for the popular slogan from the film: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Really? What does that mean? Are apologies
unnecessary in a relationship? Sounds a
bit presumptuous doesn’t it. I presume
that you love me so much that no matter how I hurt you, you will understand and
presume my apology although you never hear it.
Hmmmm. Such Hollywood presentation on the meaning of true love is
questionable although the line may sound catchy. When one stops to think about its
implications it bears reflection.
This Sunday’s second reading from Paul’s
letter to the Corinthians is certainly one of the most beautiful. It is often chosen for weddings and it has a
good place there as a near poetic reflection on the qualities of love and
specifically how Paul sees these qualities as a greater moral value; “. . . a
still more excellent way.” Because Paul uses the word “love” liberally here
it’s understandable why a bride and groom would want to hear these words at
their wedding. Yet, Paul is not speaking
of marriage directly. He speaks of a
relationship love, an “agape” love, between us and God. This is the quality of
love, Paul wants us to know, that a Christian must pursue and that which the
Holy Spirit will pour into our hearts.
In inspiring words he writes that love is:
“patient, kind, not jealous, not pompous not inflated, not rude, not seeking
its own self-interests, not quick tempered, does not brood over injuries, or
rejoice over the wrongdoing of others but rejoices with the truth.” In telling
us what love is “not,” Paul beautifully reveals to us what true love, in
pursuit of the good of another, truly “is” and looks like. Paul wants us to know that in a Christian
community these are the characteristics of what Christian behavior looks like
and what you would encounter when entering that community. In doing so we
imitate Christ himself who showed us the “more excellent way” of God’s love for
us and our love for each other. This expression and living out of agape love
creates a bond between Christ and its members and between the members
themselves.
This love does not live only on surface
emotions, with tears and hugs and a presumption of unspoken forgiveness but
becomes for Christians the pursuit of “greater spiritual gifts” that the Holy
Spirit will give us as members of the Body of Christ, the Church. It is what agape love creates. Compelling isn’t it? Easy it is not.
It seems to me, as Jesus himself often did in
his parables and in the sermon on the mount we read in Matthew, Paul is
speaking of the great ideal we must strive for. He holds up these
characteristics when he says to his Corinthian church: “love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things . . .” as what
this kind of community would look like in the most perfect of all worlds. They set for us a goal to aim for as Paul
states: “strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.”
Keep aiming high, don’t give up, this is the
goal to attain through the grace of God in his Spirit. Paul becomes a kind of spiritual coach urging
us to keep training. Yes, we fall short but keep striving higher. So we put up
with all sorts of things and make sacrifices for the sake of the Gospel and the
good of the other.
In this culture of free choice,
self-gratification, individualism, and abundant opportunity the words of Paul,
God’s call to holiness, is needed more than ever. Why put up with inconvenience
when I can do this the easy way? Mass each week is simply not that necessary because
it conflicts with my busy schedule.
The positions of the Church on popular issues
such as marriage are too “out of touch.” And besides, what about the sexual
abuse scandal and the leadership of the Church.
Haven’t they failed miserably and caused pain among the members? We are confronted with our flawed human
nature in some disturbing ways indeed.
Yet, we are all in need of reform and are in constant pursuit of
conversion. The Church is never reformed
by those who leave it.
In the Gospel, as last week, we see Jesus’
continued experience in the synagogue as he takes the position of a prophet who
now comes in God’s name as a fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah. The
crowd lauded Jesus for his words but now reconsider and turn against his seeming
arrogance. Although rejected by his own town’s people in Nazareth, he becomes
the source of salvation for all. He set
the ideal for all of us to make the kingdom of God present here by creating
these communities of agape through the Spirit-given love that forms us in his
own image. Our Eucharist creates and
expresses the unity in diversity that Paul writes of earlier.
Why not take some personal time and examine
how I can become more a contributor to this Body of Christ. Where have I fallen short and how can I use
the gifts God has given me to build up the Body of Christ? Paul’s Corinthian
letter today, I think, offers us a golden moment of self-examination.
In place of the word “love” put your own
name. For example (your name) is
patient? Kind? Not jealous? Not rude? Not selfish? Etc. Try that sometime then say you’re sorry for
the ways I have caused sin to be present rather than virtue in the community of
faith. It may be time to go to confession
and admit my sin and to know that God indeed is waiting to forgive us.
Love means saying you’re sorry and to pursue
all that the Spirit wants to create in us as we love and always will the good
of others after Christ example.
Grant us, Lord our God,
that we may honor you with all our mind,
and love everyone in truth of heart.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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