But the greatest of these is love
I have to be honest- I didn’t feel very well on Saturday. As a matter of fact, it was a pretty bad day. When I got off of work, I went from the library to the church for the vigil Mass, which is my usual. I appreciated my few minutes of meditative prayer, and then sat down to look over the readings for the day, which is also my usual practice. I read the Old Testament reading; “That’s good,” I said. Then I read the Psalm; “Also nice,” I thought. I then read the second reading:
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(I Cor. 12:31—13:13)
…and it hit me like a ton of bricks. What if we actually took the time to read this passage, and to hear it? Not in the typical cliche sort of way, but in a way that inspires positive action?
It spoke to me in a very deep way, and it profoundly changed my perspective on some personal issues with which I am currently struggling.
How should we love people?
- We are patient with those whom we love.
- We are kind to those whom we love.
- We are not jealous with those whom we love.
- We are not pompous toward those whom we love.
- We do not inflate ourselves.
- We are not rude to those whom we love.
- We do not love because of our own interests.
- We are not quick-tempered with those whom we love.
- We don’t brood when someone we love hurts us.
And what about love?
- Love bears everything.
- Love believes.
- Love never stops hoping.
- Love endures anything.
Love never fails.
Even the Holy Father picked up the theme at Sunday’s Angelus address:
Love is the essence of God himself, it is the meaning of creation and history, it is the light that gives goodness and beauty to every man’s existence.
At the same time, love is the ‘style,’ of God and the believer, it is the comportment of him who, responding to God’s love, makes his own life a gift of self to God and neighbor.
And these two aspects “form a perfect unity” in Jesus. Fixing our gaze upon him, we can confess with the Apostle John: ‘We have seen the love that God has for us and we have believed in it.’ [Source]
The greatest virtue is love. Can you imagine this life if we actually lived that?
Pax et bonum.
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I’ve not felt well for a few days either. This passage came to me yesterday as I said the public Evening Prayer in Church (I use a peculiar cycle of readings for public offices, as it provides a good continuity of reasonably short readings). Once again, i was reminded of the direct influence of the Holy Ghost in Paul – inbetween his usual writings comes this sublime piece of poetry, quite un-Pauline in style or grammar. As I read it, I thought of what to say in the short sermon/expository slot I give during EP and ended up being very Thomist (in the sense of Aquinas) and saying that the rest of the book was all so much dust and grass, indeed our faith is so much dust and grass unless it is recieved and given with love for God and each other. It made me feel much happier and warmer as I walked home, anyway.
Andrew, that is very much what I have been thinking about this passage. It is very uncharacteristically Paul, and I really appreciate your sermon idea- everything is nothing without love.
Thanks, unfortunately this reading tends to get trotted out at weddings where it takes on the same significance as the Chicken Dance. It is so nice to see it in another context, since I think it deals with all relationships. I think your write up is very nice and I appreciate it.
The question that the reading is raising for me is “what is love” Paul tells us (in the language of the philosophers) the “accidents” of love: Kindness, forebearance, patience. Paul tells us what love is not: Jealous, rude, pompous. However, I always wonder what love IS. I own that it is a mystery, but it is intriguing and challenging to me that the conversation to love is similar to a conversation of “I don’t know what art is, but I know it when I see it.” Even the statement “God is Love” challenges me because I see in the scripture where God loves us, but I don’t see a statement that “God is Love”. So I think that Love is somehow meant to be understood seperate from God (though obviously impossible w/o him).
So, what is love?
As my parish priest said on Sunday – This is Paul’s love song.
Kevin – I agree – he leaves us not entirely sure what exactly he means by love – but Christ’s self-offering is the “active” part that Thom’s earlier post discussed, I think.
[...] past Sunday’s second reading relates: If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a [...]
Kevin, my working definition of love is freely emptying oneself completely for another without any expectation of anything in return.
Davis, “Paul’s love song” is a very good way to put it, I think.
This has been on my mind for the past week and a half or so.
That has to be one of the greatest passages in all of Scripture. It’s like God opened wide His Heart and it bled onto the page for us to see and so that It would soak into us. We see HIM, as HE IS, and we are drawn into His center.
You said a few times, “…with those whom we love.” And the question immediately arises, “who is that?” Who is it that we are supposed to love? Unfortunately for us, that’s everyone. Life in Christ is a “no hate zone” – we are on the road of recovery, of transformation into the kinds of beings who love like God Loves, out of our very nature and no longer merely as a response to a command. One of these days…
Terry, me too. And it doesn’t seem to be leaving my mind. I’ve been nearly obsessed with it.
Alan, I agree with you entirely.
Alan – thank you for your excellent contribution.
One reason it so resonates right now is the passage’s place in the liturgy away from the customary wedding associations, which become more tenuous when we perceive the depth and power of the passage and its command to all of us.