Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Wednesday in the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Corinthians 12:31 -13:13 and Luke 7:31-35]Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love 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.
I've been the celebrant for many weddings. A very large number of those weddings has featured the scripture about love from Chapter 13 of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. Because I have stayed in touch with a large number of the couples, I know just how difficult it can be in married life to live up to the description of love that St. Paul gives. Since I belong to a religious order that lives in community, I know how difficult it can be to live up to St. Paul's description in that context. I've been hearing confessions for thirty-seven years as a priest. I have wonderful friends whom I know I fail from time to time. Whatever else love may be, it is also difficult! St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the love of friendship is the kind of love that God has for us and that we should have for one another. It is typified by the desire for the good of the beloved! But I know that I am sometimes mistaken about what that good is. Yet, all the songs and poems of centuries of human experience try to assure us that the effort is worthwhile even if it is difficult. No true community can hold together without it. I don't know how any human person "holds together" without being loved. If St. Paul's words, quoted above, can serve as a kind of "examination of conscience," then we may learn something about ourselves as "lovers" and try to do a better job of loving. In this effort, we will have a lot of good company! AMEN