Our second reading today is probably the most
popular wedding reading of all time. Show
of hands—how many of you used this reading at your wedding? I know we did. It
is, after all, a wonderful reading. The
thing is, St. Paul wasn’t thinking about weddings when he wrote it. In fact, he wasn’t even focusing on what love
is like. Rather, he was telling the
Corinthians that, in the end, nothing matters more than the answer to the
question: are you living out the love of
Christ?
But why did Paul write to the Corinthians
about the importance of love? In order
to answer that question, we have to know a little about Corinth at this time in
history. During this period it was a
thriving Christian community—at least on the surface. Most of the believers in Corinth were
extremely excited about their faith. There were people with tremendous gifts in
that community. There were teachers,
healers, and even some who could speak in tongues. There were profits. The word of God was being proclaimed “religiously,”
pardon the pun. The people prayed, and
preached the wonderful gospel message that Jesus had Risen from the dead, and that
all who believed in him and followed his teachings would live eternally with him
in Paradise. It seemed that everything
needed for a vibrant church was happening there in Corinth—except for one
thing…the most important thing: the Church in Corinth didn't have enough love
in it. Or, as Father Vernon used to say from this very ambo, they talked the
talk but didn’t always walk the walk. In
spite of all the wonderful things that were happening there; in spite of all
the spiritual wisdom that was shared; in spite of all the faith that the people
claimed to have, some very “non-Christian” things were going on in Corinth. Two elders dragged each other off to court
instead of making peace with one another; folks ate and drank too much while
others went hungry; public disagreements about which of the apostles who
visited Corinth were the best and which were the worst; people believing that their
contribution to the community of faith was more significant than the
contributions being made by others, and therefore their views on things should
be considered more important. In short,
people in Corinth were, at times, rude to one another, impatient, arrogant,
greedy, selfish, egotistical, and unkind.
This, even though they preached
the Word of God regularly and had otherwise displayed some wonderful spiritual
gifts.
And so Paul writes to the people of Corinth
about love in a way that is perhaps hard to understand. Listen to what Paul says: “If you have faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love - you are nothing.
If you give away everything you own,
even handing your body over, but do not have love, you have gained nothing.” Basically, if you have tremendous faith
in God and hope in the resurrection, but do not have love, you’re out of
luck. Wow, right?
So love is kind of a big deal. It’s the test
of our faith. Just as “they’ll know we
are Christians by our love,” by the same token, they’ll know we’re not very
good Christians by our lack of love. And so we must ask ourselves: “what is love?”
Love involves seeking the highest good for God's creation. God first, neighbor second, self…last. Love is being more interested in the well-being
of others than our own. It is seeing
everyone through the lens of Christ, and treating them as Christ has treated us
. And so, it’s not for me to judge you, or for you to judge me, but rather, we
must look at ourselves and ask: am I focused on Christ, or on myself? Am I showing the love of God to others--doing
what Jesus would do, and allowing Jesus to work through me? Or, am I allowing my feelings, my
frustrations, my needs, my pride, to dominate my interactions with
others?
Let’s
look at the reading again, and see if we can put ourselves in the place of
love…
I am patient. I am kind. I am not jealous. I am
not pompous. I am not inflated. I
am not rude. I do not seek my own
interests. I am not quick-tempered. I do not brood over injury. I
do not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoice with the truth.
I bear all things. I
believe all things. I hope all
things. I endure all things.
That sounds really hard,
doesn’t it? But we could very easily
insert Jesus’ name in place of love, couldn’t we? God is love.
Jesus is love. And he can help us
be more like him, if we will affix our gaze on him. Jesus abides in us. He’s in my heart and yours, ready to help us
love as he loves us. And the way we do
that is to be focused on him and on his example; to ask ourselves as we open
our mouths or move our hands--is this what Jesus would say? Is this what Jesus would do? Remember those
bracelets that people wore, WWJD?
What about on those occasions when you don't
feel loving? Do the caring thing anyway. Don't feel like being kind? Say something nice about the person who is
being rude to you anyway. Don't
think that someone else's plan will work as good as yours? Try doing it their way anyway. Don't think you can possibly do what God is
calling you to do? Start doing it… anyway. Strive for the greater gifts--the greatest of which
is love. Strive for it--and live as if you have it--for the truth is, you do. Christ died to bring love to you and to show
you what it’s like, and he rose from the dead on the third day to show that
it's power is greater than the power of sin and death. As Pope Francis said recently in his message
for Lent: “Love alone is the answer to that yearning
for infinite happiness.”
For Paul, love was the base of
Christianity, and the measure of its success. It is the greatest of all the virtues; it is
the virtue that most makes us human. If
we want to change the world we live in today, we need to find ways to make love
visible in the world. We can say we
have love, but it’s in the doing of all those other things that makes love a
reality. If we are patient with the
cashier at the grocery store…if we are kind to the homeless person asking for
money…if we are not jealous of our neighbor and his fancy new car—or pompous
about all of our possessions…if we
are not rude to the “foreigners” who just moved in across the street…if we put
the interests of our spouse, our children, our parents, ahead of our own. These
are all simple signs of love in action.
Simple, but not necessarily easy.
When you look up the word “love” in the
dictionary, it’s classified as a noun. I
remember being taught as a young boy that a noun is a “thing” and a verb is an
“action word.” Each one of us is charged
by Jesus Christ to make “love” an action word; not just something we have, but something we choose
to do…every day. So whether you
read St. Paul, or listen to Sir Paul…George, John, and Ringo, all
we really need is love
